"I like Ubuntu. With each incarnation I'm seeing improvements and betterments that make the OS better, more robust, more user friendly and more fully-featured. In fact, Ubuntu 8.04 is the first Linux distro that I've come across that I would consider loading onto my notebook to replace Windows. Throughout my testing Ubuntu 8.04 beta has been reliable and performed flawlessly. Bottom line, Hardy Heron is, for me at least, the best Linux distro ever," writes Adrian Kingsley-Hughes.
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Member since:2006-02-15
I've been saying this for a long while - Linux needs to have a stable API that is not always changing.
What are you referring to? The kernel or some user-land library?
It needs one package management system.
Why? What's wrong with having several ones? Home-users don't care, system-admins neither.
It needs to stop the plethora of application clones that all aim to do the same thing, and merge applications into one 'killer breed of application'.
That would just hinder development, not boost it. First of all, a whole lot of apps which seem somewhat similar do things different way, allowing them features their alternatives don't have. Secondly, if there was only one single app for f.ex. media playing..what would you do if that app didn't have the feature you need?
It needs to standardise on one desktop.
It has. GNOME and KDE are the standard DEs on any home-user oriented distro. Power-users on the other hand are just often delighted to experiment with alternatives.
Member since:2006-12-16
Well, I'll happily use my Microsoft Windows operating system cos it works, and works well and does what I need it to, and merrily watch as Linux becomes well, less adopted than ever.
More people are now switching from Windows to OS X than Windows to Linux, and if the Linux community doesn't want to get its head out of the sand, it'll just end up being a geeks o/s. You can mock me now, but history will show me as being right in ten or 20 years.
Linux has already missed the boat - the fact that people are happy to pay $$$ to Apple for a hardware and o/s change, than try a freebie Linux download says it all.
It's amazing at how many idiots are out there that call a post flamebait, or a person a troll just because they think outside of the box, rather than think like a lemming like the rest of the community.
But hey, it's your loss (i.e. the Linux community), not mine. I gave up on Linux a while ago for the very reasons that I've pointed out in my earlier post.
Dave
PS Linux is even losing out in the server stakes, with more and more enterprises switching from UNIX to Windows Server 2003, or even from Linux back to Server 2003 (or from earlier versions of Windows server to Server 2003). We also see IIs making large inroads into the web server market now. I know all of your Lunix Luddites will say Microsoft is fudging the stats etc, and with attitudes like that, the Linux o/s is sure to go downhill.
RE[2]: Best Linux distro ever?
Member since:2007-07-10
Member since:2005-07-06
Except of course won't play out like that. If, for example, the KDE project was magically shut down, do you really think all (or even most) current KDE developers would become GNOME developers? The thing is when people are working for free (and often even if you're paying them) they'll only work on things they think are fun. All KDE and GNOME developers have looked at both projects and picked the one they think looked fun to work on. If that choice is removed they're just as likely to find something else entirely to do with their spare time.
That's the essentially unchangeable nature of open source. It's very easy to find plenty of developers willing to work for free, but basically impossible to guide them to work on what a central authority considers important.
I think you'll find that most people have no problem understanding your argument, they just realize it is at best highly impractical and at worst incorrect. And insulting people is hardly helping.
And at the end of the day if everybody thought like you, Linux wouldn't even exist.
Member since:
2006-12-16
I've been saying this for a long while - Linux needs to have a stable API that is not always changing. It needs one package management system. It needs to stop the plethora of application clones that all aim to do the same thing, and merge applications into one 'killer breed of application'. It needs to standardise on one desktop. Choice is great, but it's a double edged sword, and this choice is something that really does turn a lot of people off on using Linux from my experience.
Concentrating on one application/desktop environment etc will allow more developers to work on the project, decreasing bug fix times, increasing implementation of new feature times etc.
Sadly, trying to explain this to Lunix Lovers™ is almost like Tom Cruise giving up Scientology to become an Atheist.
When this starts happening, you'll find proprietary 3rd party software vendors will start porting to Linux more frequently, Linux drivers will become more frequent and so forth. Oh, and if the Linux kernel development team actually stop sucking up to the big corporations, and actually start developing the kernel to favour desktop users...
See, Microsoft has a code base for servers, and one for Desktops. Linux has one codebase, and whilst it simplifies development to some degree, it allows favouritism for one group over the other (usually the group with the biggest money), which skewers development.
BSD has it sort of right, although the licence is crud imho.
Dave