Linked by Kroc Camen on Sun 13th Sep 2009 16:33 UTC
"For the last 12 months, I have used Ubuntu 8.04, 8.10, and 9.04 as my primary OSes. I remain a very happy Linux convert, but I worry that Ubuntu is being unevenly developed. Certain areas have seen great improvements over the last 12 months, while other areas have languished or been largely ignored. The purpose of this article is not to whine or rant, but to bring some perspective to the evolution (or lack thereof) that Ubuntu has experienced between versions 8.04 and 9.04."
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RE[4]: Switch to Fedora, you know it makes sense
by Doc Pain on Sun 13th Sep 2009 22:13
in reply to "RE[3]: Switch to Fedora, you know it makes sense"
Member since:2006-10-08
Well, maybe someone should think about making Linux (and the various distro) "Legal" in some form, god forbid even if we had to pay a "little" something for it.
I wouldn't have any problem to buy an operating system that does what I need. In the past, IRIX or Solaris were such an OS. There are Linusi that you can get for free and pay for additional support. And there are even Linusi that are sold in shops, on the shelf, in a box, with a DVD inside.
See, if I know what I need, I spend money for a specific piece of hardware, e. g. an office-class laser printer with duplex and PostScript compatibility, as well as a built-in NIC. Through the price I can be sure that it is compatible to my IT infrastructure. If I would buy a cheap and crappy inkpee printer, I know that I would end up in trouble because the device isn't compatible.
The reverse engineering used to make things work right now is flaky.
Yes, sadly. It's important to understand that this fact applies to hardware that does not comform to existing standards, or, in other words, which is incompatible. You don't expect a Microchannel GPU to work in your PCI "driven" PC mainboard, do you? :-)
Maybe, just maybe, if Linux was made "Legal", we would enjoy much better support from hardware makers and big software devs.
Hardware manufactureres and software developers will have to understand that Linux is a solid OS that has many advantages, and if you learn (oww... learn...) how to use them, you can make money from it. (And as we all know, money counts, finally.)
The more end-user systems are migrating to Linux at work places, the more this trend will materialize in homes, as it was the fact with "Windows"; it's because users "want the same pictures at home" as they know them from work.
Right now, I can't understand how a Linux user could seriously say that he can do EVERYTHING, with EASE, VS another user running Windows.
To be honest, I can't imagine that claim according to "Windows", but as you will agree, such a consideration highly depends on individual experiences. I haven't used any "Windows", and I've been doing EVERYTHING with EASE for many years now. The programs, interfaces, concepts and documentation I depend on simply aren't available on "Windows" platforms, so I'm using something that fits my needs. And I'm quite average, especially when it comes to home desktop use. For example, I'm using FreeBSD on my home desktop for many years now, without any (!) problems. What am I doing wrong? :-)
For many years, Linux is capable of serving very well as an "average user's preferred system", but there are the hardware manufacturers coming up with crappy devices each day that advertisement forces people to buy ("You need it!"), and software manufacturers keep thinking within the restricted paradigms they know ("We've always done it that way."). Bringing Linux to the masses, like Ubuntu does, is a move into the right direction.
RE[4]: Switch to Fedora, you know it makes sense
by Soulbender on Mon 14th Sep 2009 01:43
in reply to "RE[3]: Switch to Fedora, you know it makes sense"
Member since:2005-08-18
Right now, I can't understand how a Linux user could seriously say that he can do EVERYTHING, with EASE, VS another user running Windows.
I can get everything done with ease in Linux (except gaming, of course) but not in Windows. Quite frankly, every time I use Windows (Vista, XP) my blood pressure rise to dangerous levels by the constant battle you have to wage with the system to get things working.
Member since:
2005-07-06
This has, as far as I know, much to do with legal restrictions. Of course, it would be great just to install mplayer with all codecs from one binary package. But sadly, the sheer amount of different codecs and the restrictions about many of them make it different. If users would stick to open formats that completely could replace the proprietary ones, the problem you mentioned wouldn't be there.
Well, maybe someone should think about making Linux (and the various distro) "Legal" in some form, god forbid even if we had to pay a "little" something for it. The reverse engineering used to make things work right now is flaky.
Maybe, just maybe, if Linux was made "Legal", we would enjoy much better support from hardware makers and big software devs.
Right now, I can't understand how a Linux user could seriously say that he can do EVERYTHING, with EASE, VS another user running Windows.
Think of Apple and OS X. If Apple could do it, have a OS with a nice GUI, Bling, softwares, legal with all codecs working... I guess Linux could do it too. Windows is not the only OS that can do it all.
Edited 2009-09-13 22:07 UTC