GNU/Linux leader or follower It is both? Linux is leading the charge to
run on different platforms. I don't think a week goes by without hearing
about Linux running on something new. Or new products(embedded systems,
PDAs) designed with Linux in mind! It follows because sometimes we as Linux
users may have to wait a month or two for new drivers, etc.
WMP(spell checked as wimp ;-) is proprietary and nothing can be done about
that. With more and more companies opening up and willing to work with one
another maybe we'll see reduced waiting time for the latest and greatest.
Microsoft doesn't seem to understand this: Together we can accomplish more.
The Internet and computers were built on people borrowing from one another.
If the two guys that invented the spreadsheet had patented and closed it,
would be had 1 2 3, Excel, or StarCalc?
Microsoft in using a lot of smoke and mirrors in it's current advertising
campaign. How long has speak recognition been around? Granted it is better
today (and available, IBM, DragonSystems to name a few) then it was five
years or even a year ago. Microsoft does not offer anything in this area.
Want speak recognition on Linux? Check out this link
http://www.linuxcare.com/viewpoints/lina/11-22-99.epl. What streaming
video? The Realplayer is available, or check this out
http://coruscant.netrevolution.com/pub/AES/StreamingServer/. (Jean-Michel
is the man) How about audio? Check out http://icecast.org/. MP3 isn't
going anywhere (sorry RIAA ;-). You can find all kinds of goodies at
www.freshmeat.net or http://linux.tucows.com/.
Some people cannot (or choose not to) see past Microsoft's FUD. As a Linux
user, I attend my local LUG and try and help newbies (like I'm not ;-) learn
more about Linux. It is up to us to help chart the course of Linux. Tell a
friend, tell a neighbor. Linux maybe lacking in the "desktop", but it is
getting there. "The future is so bright I gotta wear shades."
Cecil
----- Original Message -----
From: Benjamin Sher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Air-exp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2000 6:36 PM
Subject: [expert] GNU/Linux -- leader or follower?
> Dear friends:
>
> I am exhilirated by Linux and at the same time concerned about its
> future:
>
> I have been using Linux for about a year and a half (first Red Hat and
> for the past year Linux-Mandrake, now upgrading to 7.1, and I just love
> it. For a year I ran Linux and nothing but Linux. Recently, due to the
> continuing encroachment of Windows Media Player, I have had no choice
> but to install Win98 as a dual Linux-Windows system. Why? Almost
> overnight stations everywhere were switching to WMP. For me this is not
> a question of entertainment alone but of professional needs. As a
> Russian translator, I suddenly discovered that most Russian television
> stations now broadcast their domestic programs in Russian using WMP? The
> same goes for many other languages.
>
> And the same goes for many other areas that Microsoft is relentlessly
> pursuing even as the judge is about to hand his verdict later this
> afternoon.
>
> The following two articles made a very deep impression on me. I am NOT a
> programmer, but the writing is or seems to be on the wall. What
> precisely? Not that Linux is dying. On the contrary, it is exploding all
> over and conquering new territory every day, from the new IBM S/390
> mainframe computers down to embedded systems. I enjoy reading LinuxToday
> (www.linuxtoday.com) just to read the daily headlines that are a
> rollcoll, a cavalcade of Linux's fantastic successes. Recently, I
> discovered that GeoVRML will bring 3D for the first time to Linux.
>
> The authors of the two articles below express deep concern about a key
> tendency in Linux, namely, that of FOLLOWING technological innovations
> on the Windows and Mac platforms (I don't mean Microsoft's "innovation"
> but that of Windows developers and third party software companies
> developing applications for Windows and the Mac) rather than LEADING
> them.
>
> The first article deals with a potentially astonishing development for
> computers in general and a devastating blow to Open Source, namely, the
> Star Wars talkie computer strategy, i.e. a possible Voice Recognition
> OS, developed by Microsoft or Apple. The author bemoans the nearly total
> neglect of this and other critical technologies by the Open Source
> Community. He claims that such a talkie technology would have to be an
> OS technology, and he opines that this may well be Microsoft's secret
> plan, i.e. to keep stalling until the technology is fully developed
> (shades of their first attempts at a browser, at Windows Media Player
> and at a PocketPC). If Microsoft succeeds, the author believes that it
> will continue its monopoly power for at least another generation.
>
>
> URL:
>
> http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-06-07-017-06-PS-MS
>
>
> The second is an article on Microsoft Patents ASF Media Format: Stops
> Reverse Engineering. Again, the author laments the fact that the Open
> Source community would rather spend its time creating yet another text
> editor rather than getting together and forming its own standard,
> software and pushing for its implementation and universal adoption.
> Again, he implies that Linux is a follower and not a leader.
>
> URL:
> http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-06-07-002-20-OS-MS-SW
>
> I am not raising these issues because I have the answers but in order to
> spark a serious discussion by professionals about the issues raised in
> these and other articles.
>
> Is GNU/Linux a leader or a follower and should it be?
>
> If RealPlayer falls by the wayside (the signs are already there, no
> matter how rosy the 120 million base of users picture looks because
> Microsoft has bundled its WMP Server with Windows 2000), what will Linux
> have left. We will be surfing the Web blind, groping in the darkness of
> a Microsoft world dominated by Microsoft's "embrace, extend and
> extinguish" concept of standard-adherence. In other words, we will be at
> the mercy of Microsoft.
>
> More importantly, Linux will be at the mercy not only of Microsoft but
> of proprietary software companies in general, of strangulation by UCITA,
> etc.
>
> My own general impression after being a regular reader of LinuxToday for
> over a year is that Linux is, generally speaking, REACTING to
> developments in the proprietary world rather than leading it by
> developing new technologies. Linux is obviously a great visionary
> achievement by a dedicated cooperative worldwide movement, but it began
> as an attempt to duplicate UNIX on the PC (and also recently on the
> Mac). KDE is fabulous, and, like everyone else, I am very excited about
> KDE2, but again, it is an attempt to duplicate Windows (albeit in a
> superior way). So is Koffice. And I guess so is Gnome. And so is Mozilla
> an attempt at creating a superior browser rather than a whole new
> technology that might make a browser obsolete in the first place (such
> as the Napster, for instead, or Gnutella). And Sun's StarOffice, my
> default Office program, a wonderful, feature-rich program more than
> sufficient for most of us, is again an attempt (successful, I assume) to
> duplicate and possibly to outdo Microsoft Office).
>
> So, is Linux a leader or a follower. And what should it be?
>
> Should it duplicate what other proprietary systems have already done or
> should it compete with them by revolutioning existing technology and
> drawing people to it not only because it can do what Windows does only
> so much better, with such fabulous reliability and true multitasking,
> etc., but rather because it offers something truly revolutionary?
>
> In short: what would happen if Linux had developed voice technology and
> were able to suddenly surprise the computer world with a Star Treck
> talkie PC? Wouldn't that turn the entire desktop world upside down?
>
> Just thinking aloud, folks.
>
> Thanks for listening.
>
> Benjamin
>
> --
> Benjamin and Anna Sher
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sher's Russian Web
> http://www.websher.net
>
