On 16 Aug 2002 10:17:26 +0200 Michel Fodje <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Let me end by quoting Joelonsoftware: > " > http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000064.html > ... there is a much worse kind of arrogance in software design: the > arrogant assumption that "my software is so damn cool, people are just > going to have to warp their brains around it." This kind of chutzpah > is pretty common in the free software world. Hey, Linux is free! If > you're not smart enough to decipher it, you don't deserve to be using > it!" One of the biggest problems hitting the Linux world is the failure of people to understand the different approach taken by Unix systems to solving problems. Mandrake Linux is what I use on my desktop, I put redhat or debian on servers. I'm considering dropping Mandrake for my desktop - and let me take a second to explain why. Unix style operating systems are based on a very different OS architecture to Windows style systems. This is seen clearly in the component model for applications. Loads of little applications that do a specific job well. Loads of lightweight processes that can communicate with each other to deliver an overall solution. The 'power' of the Unix approach is that you are not forced to take any single path to solve your problem, you choose the path that means most to you - the one that best fits your needs. The Windows approach is clearly different, it says "there shall be only one way, and you will use it". The windows approach makes it easier for beginners to get a handle on - simply because they have no choice, and no-one else has any choice in how things are done.. So beginners and experts alike have to do things the same way. Unix is *different*, that doesn't mean that it must be harder, but it's strengths are in being different. The recent push of Linux to the Desktop taken the windows approach, and we're trying to build a huge single monolith of an operating system without all the flexibility of the back-end.. Gnome is a classic example , if you install gnome then to hell with you if you don't want Nautilus. Choice is being lost.. The arguments about Aurora / OSS / ALSA are the same, people are trying to restrict choice. I can't stand Aurora (personally) but I can quite happily accept that it is probably useful for some people out there. I fully accept that the 'beginner' install needs to make most of the choices for the end user, and that the expert install needs to allow people to thrash the hell out of their machine - but maybe it's time for an 'intermediate' install. Linux has taken on the world because it offered choices... Let's not kill Mandrake because we fail to continue offering choices. Just my 0.02 Euro -- Chris Higgins Horizon e: chris.higgins at hts.horizon.ie tel: +353-1-6204900 fax: +353-1-6204901
