In comp.os.linux.advocacy,
rbchinchen@gmail.com
<rbchinchen@gmail.com>
wrote
on Thu, 29 May 2008 14:33:14 -0700 (PDT)
<35eb7a80-7ae1-459e-92ed-753ad63ed7c7@x19g2000prg.googlegroups.com>:
> On May 23, 6:00 pm, "Moshe. Goldfarb" <brick.n.st...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> http://www.applematters.com/article/about-linux-and-why-nobody-seems-...
>>
>> " The general consensus seems to be that Mac users are the sort who want
>> the best in quality, no expenses spared Windows users are those who're
>> looking for the best bang for their buck (generally in the short term) and
>> Linux users are the ones who want everything for free, particularly
>> software."
>>
>> " Some Linux users are easily dazzled by superfluous and completely useless
>> effects (wobbly windows, blatant overuse of transparency, etc.) and assume
>> that it must be better than Mac OS X because it's so cosmetically made-up
>> and then there are others who only need the Terminal and can keep typing on
>> it whole day long."
>>
>> " The problem with the Linux community is that, like any community, it has
>> members with widely varying interests and preferences and the open source
>> developers are developing hundreds of distributions to try and cater to
>> every single whim and fancy of these members. The result is a cornucopia of
>> free software, software that has been developed at the expense of the hard
>> work and time of some of the most skilled developers on the planet, and yet
>> does not have a single product that is complete in and of itself and is
>> generating any profit at all."
>
> Duh, there's reason it's called FREE OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE!!! the point
> is not profit, it's a better end result.
Define "better". Moshe isn't exactly sure what it
means...and I can't say I know what it means precisely
anyway, as Windows is provably better in one area: profits.
Of course, that's not exactly going to endear the IT
manager whose box keeps crashing because a virus sneaked
through.
> one of the key features is
> INTEROPERABILITY! this means that we can use one program that is
> really really good at, say, ripping music, and then one that is really
> really good at burning discs. this means that we have more choice as
> to what we do, and how we do it.
That's not interoperability, merely good multitasking. -)
Interoperability (IMO, anyway) relates to things such as
communicating with and/or developing software for Solaris
nodes, Windows nodes, FreeBSD nodes on a Linux box.
Another "axis" relates to machine type one can develop
Linux software for ix86, arm, m68k, ppc, and other
hardware.
And yes, Linux is extremely good at interoperability.
Still, good multitasking helps it's one less thing to worry about.
>
>> " There is no way whatsoever that thousands of developers sitting in front
>> of their computers in different corners of the world and spending only
>> their non-working hours trying to develop something that they know isn't
>> going to make them any money, are ever going to come up with anything good
>> enough to seriously challenge software from companies like Microsoft and
>> Apple. There is just no chance at all."
>
> you know what free open source has done? hmm... i wonder... what is
> the code that runs Android, the phone platform from Google.
Not free...yet. One can identify qemu 0.8.2 in there,
but it's been mangled in several interesting ways -- among
them the development of Yet Another Flash File System.
(Yes, that's what it's called! It's a module addition to
the Android standard kernel, named 'yaffs2', and readily
retrofittable to a stock kernel. Apparently it's optimized for
Flash-based devices such as USB memory sticks.)
Also, 'tools/emulator -qemu -M ?' returns a result that
includes 'android_arm' someone's diddled in there a bit.
(Trying to run with -M integratorcp926 pegged my CPU,
but didn't do anything horribly interesting otherwise.)
I think Google engineer(s) might be a little nervous about
their modifications. I hope they resolve this soon.
> more to
> the point, what runs google? the world's BIGGEST and most powerfull
> search engine? Linux servers, among other things.
>
>> " Linux has been around for more than a decade now and it's nowhere near
>> challenging either Mac OS X or Windows. The vast majority of hardware and
>> software makers around the world are still shipping products that are
>> incompatible with Linux."
>
> mainly because microsoft subtly threatens them with pulling their
> dealer agreements.
I'm not sure "incompatible with Linux" is the right
phrasing here, though. Of course part of the issue is
that, rather than OEMs designing products compatible with
Linux, Linux basically has to de-engineer (often with OEM
help) already-designed products.
This ultimately leads to a similar result but may not be nearly
as efficient.
Of course, Microsoft will not want to sit still and let Linux
take advantage of its work...assuming Microsoft's doing that
much work here, apart from supporting a framework which lets
driver writers do what's needed.
>
>> " There's no guarantee that the camera you bought today and is compatible
>> with your Ubuntu installation will work with Fedora Core too should you
>> change your mind in a few days, as is a common practice among the Linux
>> enthusiasts."
>
> just so you know, in windows generic drivers have myriad issues,
Which version of said drivers? Apparently, there's been
no less than *four*, though I'm not that knowledgeable.
I can readily identify, though, what appears to be the
following driver variants.
- Win 3.1 variants, which are MS-DOS variants. These are by now
extremely decrepit, and am not sure they count.
- Win95 (or maybe LBA, which *predated* Win95). VxDs in particular
were well known successors to DOS TSRs ... and about as ugly.
- WinNT, a radical departure from Win95, though not quite as
radical perhaps as attempting to port an old DOS TSR to a
Linux text console.
- WinXP, which I believe rewrote WinNT drivers underneath
for some reason.
- WinVista, which changed them *again*, leading to some major
annoyances as nVidia didn't roll fast enough.
Yeah, that highly stable driver foundation Windows offers! Not.
(Screensavers are even worse, as I understand it...but I digress.)
> in
> linux, they work almost every time with little or no issue.
And I doubt they've mutated all that much since version 1.2.
It's easily possible to check, too...dig up an old 1.2
kernel, see what's happened to the NE2K driver (which is
an absolutely ancient card by now).
> this means
> that even without the propietry drivers we can use this hardware.
> anyway, if a company like ASUS makes a linux based laptop, i think
> it's safe to say that they are going to make more hardware for us.
Assuming they in fact make hardware, as opposed to merely
assembling it. -) But if they're going to provide a
Linux bios, then they'll definitely want to have drivers
in that bios -- and hopefully
>
>> " All of this and more are reasons enough to ignore Linux. Linux users are
>> never quite sure which one is the best distribution around. They have
>> debates in their own community with twenty different users vouching for
>> twenty different variations. They constantly have to keep figuring out
>> workarounds to make all their software and hardware work together. They
>> can't just go out and buy a new accessory, assured in the knowledge that it
>> will work. They are afraid to upgrade, lest things go wrong."
>
> the point of a distro is that you have range of product. we can use a
> lightweight version for a low end computer, or use Ubuntu or PCLOS for
> someone who has little experience. this means that you aren't stuck
> with windows xp vista or good old 2000.
>
> maybe this person should try using linux for a week, as i know for a
> fact he did with windows or mac.
s/Linux/Ubuntu/, or perhaps Fedora, Debian, or a number of other
distros. I'll admit I'm not sure which one to recommend I happen
to like Gentoo but that's a stickshift to most other distro's automatic
transmissions.
Still, getting one's feet wet with Ubuntu might be very good experience.
--
#191,
ewill3@earthlink.net
Windows Vista. Now in nine exciting editions. Try them all!
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