Re: I've thought better of Linux

Kirk Job Sluder wrote: 

But a bit too often, I see complaints about Linux that have very little
to do with actually using Linux.

One of my complaints is that Linux adherants usually have a different mentality for parcelling application and system functionality than the rest of us "mere mortals" who simply expect things to work. So you'll say things like, "well that's not really a *Linux* problem..." and I'll say the hell it isn't. There used to be a gazillion Unixes, and it was certainly valid to talk about "a Unix problem" because of the patchwork, always-slightly-incompatible way that the Unix world did things.

I'm sure we can agree on these things being "Linux distro" problems. You just think this doesn't implicate Linux, and I think it does. Furthermore, all the lay people coming from a Windows world (for instance, consumers) consider these sorts of things to be "Linux problems." People talk about "Windows problems" even though there's W2K, XP, Win98SE, ME, and so forth... doesn't make a problem any less of a "Windows problem."

You can try to give people a massive re-education / brainwashing, that somehow if you put the label "Linux" on the right components and categories, it suddenly doesn't have problems. But I think that's both pissing in the wind and a lot of malarky. Consumers aren't interested in hearing it, they just want things to work.

It remains to be seen if any Linux distro will rise above its peers, provide things that just work, and capture mindshare as "the reliable Linux." I doubt it's going to happen. I think Apple will kill any consumer interest in such a beast, and Linux will remain a server system with lotsa admins in tow.

--
Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA

I won't spend more than 1 day configuring 1 thing.
.

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