Justin wrote: > i agree with what you are saying here, but what is the point of an > operating system if only one person is using it? further, if we don't care > for people who can't contribute to an OS, why have the Linux Demo Day at > all? how many people out there know C or C++, or whatever language you > prefer, and can actually contribute to an OS? how many people have the > time? i'd love to contribute to an OS or any other programming project, but <snip> We have the linux demoday to peak the interest of everyone. Those people that will come will be IT managers who will be looking at linux for their company, IT staff who will look at it for their networks, or their home systems, home users who will want to replace windows, etc. These people can give back, regardless of their programming skills. I have not given anything back to the community with my programming skills. However I have given back and continue to give back with my support skills, and involvment and advocacy. I'm on this list, and on the debian-firewall list. I have offered help to people's queries on both lists. This means the developers don't have to do this. When I started learning *nix, I got a lot of help from euglug and various other lists. Now I have the ability to return the favor. These queries and answers on the various lists I've been on: netfilter, debian-firewall, debian-laptop, euglug and some others are all archived on the web. So not only does my giving back help the person who immediately needed help, it also can potentially help hundreds of people browsing around anonymously. How many countless times have I searched for error messages on google, came across a mailing list archive and found the answer: exactly what I needed? Can you say truthfully that windows is better supported? No, you can't. M$ charges $195 per incident and a poor knowledge base. I have searched for MS problems in their KB, not found anything, then gone to goolgle, searched for the same thing, and found M$'s KB articles, on their servers. That is truly sad. Great Plains charges $95 per incident, also with a poor KB. If you have an order or batch that won't go through the accounting system, what do you do? What do you search on? Would you think of "stuck batch"? If not, you must pay $95 for the support engineer to search the same knowledge base. Ouch! As Jacob mentioned, we can also help by reporting bugs. While I don't follow the unstable distribution trees, I do have software running that occasionally hits bumpy terrain. Giving back also means reporting bugs to the developers in a comprehensive fashion so that they can get fixed and everyone can benefit. Justin: > it's also the most widely supported OS out there. 90% of the No it's not the most widely supported OS. Perhaps by hardware vendors, but that's only one aspect of support. > desktop market (and dropping!) means that developers go to windoze with > their programs. who wants to write programs for *nix when there's little or > no money in it? Many people write programs for *nix, knowing full well that there is no money in it. Why do they do that? Are they fools? Why do they respond to bug reports? I emailed a developer once, because the kernel sound card driver for my laptop didn't work properly. I described the problem. In about a week he sent me a new driver that worked perfectly. Try that with microsoft. That's not to say *nix is good and microsoft is bad, I'm only saying the level of support isn't there with many such software companies. But why do they do that? Let's take Hylafax for an example. Given freely away, not even licensed under the GPL. It's just FREE. Copyrighted by SGI and the guy who wrote it, Sam Leffler. You must mention them for credit, but that's the only restriction. Sam needed a powerful fax server for their sgi machines. So they wrote one, then they shared the work with others. In return they expanded their userbase, which greatly enriched the project. Linus Torvalds used MINIX and didn't like everything about the system. So he sent some change requests to the MINIX developers. They said, "NO", so Linus decided to make an operating system that would meet his needs. One of them being an OS that users could either change themselves, or request changes to it. Linus wasn't intent on making a buck, he just wanted his needs met by his computer. He shared his work with others, invited other guru class hackers to join them. They worked on linux for themselves, not to make a buck. The result? Not some religion that they want to linuxize people with. Rather something that meets their computing needs, gives them pleasure to work on, and freedom from the tyranny of controlled OSes. Jacob: > > If you want an OS that is well supported, works with any hardware > > you want, and is easy to use and maintain, then you need to be rich, > > so you can hire a support staff and programmers :) Good! Justin: > sizable chunk of my paycheck for an OS. if i want Debian on CD, i order it > for roughly $40 (a couple years ago. it may have changed...) plus shipping. You can order any CD for a few dollars without books at linuxmall.com and other places. Justin: > Windoze costs me $145+. see the difference? i can afford $40 and i > certainly don't mind paying it. $145 is stretching it. I agree. Justin: > i could care less about the GNU GPL or OpenBSD's liscense, so long > as the system WORKS and runs the software i like to use. source code and a > good liscense is simply icing on the cake (when i learn a proper language, You pay $145 for windows that barely works. Yes it works for some things, but for many things it doesn't work. *nix works for many more things. ;) Free licensing is what made free OSes so powerful. Everyone can use them. Everyone can contribute in many many many ways. The userbase explodes, problems are reported and fixed in a much faster and grander scale than any one vendor can match. Having the source available to you is very important, regardless of whether or not you can read it. It means the guy down the road, or the consultant you hire or some guys across the internet who can read it, can modify it to meet their or your needs. justin: > i am whining. It's ok, I think we've all done it in the past. A saint once said, "Forget the past, the lives of all men are dark... If you are making a spiritual effort now, life will improve." --Swami Sri Yukteswar Cory Note: *nix != spirituality *nix != religion There are those who make them equal, but they are likely not true devotees of *nix. ;)
