Linked by Amjith Ramanujam on Fri 11th Jul 2008 22:30 UTC, submitted by pas de calais
"Recently a blog post entitled 'Why Desktop Linux is its own worst enemy' has come across my feed-radar a few times. It's yet another in the long line of 'Linux ain't ready yet' jeremiads and it doesn't really say anything new yet it got on my nerves. Why?" Ryan Cartwright at Freesoftware Magazine is on fine form with this wonderfully splenetic broadside. Read the full tirade at FSM.
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RE: Rants don't help anyone but the author
by crimperman on Sat 12th Jul 2008 23:58
in reply to "Rants don't help anyone but the author"
Member since:2006-11-09
It's fine to not agree with someone else but ranting about it doesn't help, unless you feel better doing it.
Actually if it generates discussion (as it has here and in other places) then it does help somewhat.
Yes, I know that they're volunteers but I still want things to work properly and so does the non-technical buyer who would be thrilled to save hundreds of dollars on a computer pre-loaded with some distribution of Linux.
I can forgive the volunteers for not being able to do certain things, but in the end, it has to work. Apparently, the author doesn't see that.
I can forgive the volunteers for not being able to do certain things, but in the end, it has to work. Apparently, the author doesn't see that.
Not true. The original blog post I responded to rattled on about mp3 playback "not working out of the box", I pointed out that there are plenty of GNU/Linux distributions whee it does. Some others deliberately do not include it for reasons of freedom. If you disagree with the stance of the latter the former is available at no charge.
The thing I don't like to see is that rather than educate (and thus assist) the end-users we hear that we should make the interfaces more dummy-proof. It's like people want Star Trek-like computers and they forget the problems Picard had getting a cup of hot tea.
Sorry if some people didn't get the cultural reference there.
cheers
Crimperman
RE[2]: Rants don't help anyone but the author
by bousozoku on Sun 13th Jul 2008 04:42
in reply to "RE: Rants don't help anyone but the author"
Member since:2006-01-23
...
Not true. The original blog post I responded to rattled on about mp3 playback "not working out of the box", I pointed out that there are plenty of GNU/Linux distributions whee it does. Some others deliberately do not include it for reasons of freedom. If you disagree with the stance of the latter the former is available at no charge.
The thing I don't like to see is that rather than educate (and thus assist) the end-users we hear that we should make the interfaces more dummy-proof. It's like people want Star Trek-like computers and they forget the problems Picard had getting a cup of hot tea.
Sorry if some people didn't get the cultural reference there.
cheers
Crimperman
If everything worked perfectly on Star Trek, each series would have lasted only one season. "If you keep going like that, you're going to overload the thing." type of statements were necessary to see how long people would watch. If it was boring who would care?
It's true that, because of licensing and legal issues, Canonical/Ubuntu has withheld certain pieces as shipped. Free software has limitations.
However, a non-technical user doesn't care. They want it to work and they don't want to stare down 12 boxes (or downloads) which all say Linux, attempting to understand the differences.
Linux is good, but there has to be a clear leader in usability to get it past the corporate setting.
RE: Rants don't help anyone but the author
by Moulinneuf on Sun 13th Jul 2008 18:34
in reply to "Rants don't help anyone but the author"
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:
2006-01-23
It's fine to not agree with someone else but ranting about it doesn't help, unless you feel better doing it.
The point is (repeatedly) taken that what you get in a Linux distribution is the work of volunteers, and possibly a few professionals.
If you're using a Linux distribution in the office, it's not a problem. In fact, they're likely better than using Windows for the most part.
Home usage is where it falls (a bit) short, depending on distribution. My point-and-click experiment with Ubuntu has left me interested but hoping for some reality to creep into the big picture.
Yes, I know that they're volunteers but I still want things to work properly and so does the non-technical buyer who would be thrilled to save hundreds of dollars on a computer pre-loaded with some distribution of Linux.
I can forgive the volunteers for not being able to do certain things, but in the end, it has to work. Apparently, the author doesn't see that.