Linked by Jack Perry on Thu 3rd Jun 2004 17:55 UTC
It's all Waterloo-Maple's fault, really: if they had maintained a version of their computer algebra system for the Amiga, I wouldn't have found it necessary to switch to Mac. Or maybe it's Commodore's fault for mismanaging themselves into oblivion; I don't know. Either way, I became painfully aware three years ago that my little Amiga would no longer satisfy my computing needs. I needed a new home computer.
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What's my point? I thought I answered that on page 3, under the heading, "What's your point?" :-)
Slamming the door in the face of Linux is a big mistake, however. Especially in an academic environment where access to the guts of the machine by smart people is incredibly valuable. You're experience is of the "I couldn't figure out how to do this one thing in Linux so it sucks" variety--pointless.
Reading this, I have a strong feeling that you focused too much on why I bought a Mac, and either missed or discounted my remark that Linux had become useable, and that I explored the idea of converting the iBook to Yellow Dog Linux. We continue to use Linux in the office even now, and these days I enjoy it.
Having said that: It's not "pointless" that I couldn't install the OS because the X server would not work with the video card; it's not "pointless" that several thousand dollars of taxpayer money effectively bought me a paperweight for several months because I couldn't figure it out, while the people who had advocated for Linux were too busy to figure it out.
It's not "pointless" that my advisor couldn't figure out why Linux wouldn't install to him machine, in fact even the Linux experts couldn't figure it out (hence his switch to Windows).
It's not "pointless" that my colleague encountered difficulties upgrading the OS on two machines, which went down for an entire week.
Not a single one of us struggling with these problems is "a computer newbies" -- most of us have 20+ years of personal computer experience, and after 25+ years of personal computer evolution, the very least we ought to expect from a modern OS is a smooth installation. If we can't install it, the OS is unusable. That's not "pointless".
Free code does not trump features if the free code won't work.