C.H. You appear to have your head in the sand. I love Linux, I love it more than I tolerate Windows, but changes must be made. This is because I eschew a world run by Microsoft, not because I advocate it. I should be able to *upgrade* to another version of Linux, not because Windows can do this (effectively they cannot), but because I am going to invest more of myself intosetting up my Linux box, to be exactly what I want, than I will spend banging my head against the brick wall that is Windows. Are there bugs in Linux apps? Yes. Are they fixed rapidly? Yes. Therefore does it make sense to keep the same version of apps for years? Of course not! I am responding to you in KMail 2.1.2, which is wonderful; compared to what I am using now the earlier version of KMail was atrocious (comparisons with MS crap aside), and here is the salient point, compared with what will be available, this is severely lacking. So what do we do but to keep receiving the great bounties of upgrades? I mean these are real, measurable improvements, not marketting gimmicks. Why would you pass them up? mg On Sunday 09 September 2001 01:58, C.H. Close wrote: > Ron Johnson wrote: > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > > Hash: SHA1 > > > > The constantly changing APIs/libraries. > > > > Moving from mdk7.2 to 8.0 required a complete reinstall to make > > sure no "ghosts from the past" remain to cause problems. This > > is because massive amounts of upgraded libraries were introduced, > > and many directories were moved. As we have seen so many threads > > here on this list, upgrading a mdk7.2 system in these 8.0 days > > requires compiling SRPMs, and many times, they won't work because > > of the aforementioned upgraded libraries and moved directories. > > > > Just recently, I upgraded from KDE 2.1.1 to 2.2. *Definitely* > > not something that non-geeks would ever contemplate or be able > > to do. Noone could contemplate it on a dial-up line. > > > > Take for example my wife. She's been using the same Win98 box > > with Office97 for 3 years. The only upgrade has been to IE5.5. > > She *likes* it that way. Could she be a happy, unchanging linux > > desktop user for 3 years from 1998? Don't think so. > > > > Could she be a happy linux desktop user for the 3 years starting > > now? NO. "Soon", qt3 will be released. Then KDE3 will be re- > > leased. Then will RPMs (or even SRPMs) created for KDE3 run on > > her 2.2. Of course not, since mdk can't create *RPMs of new > > programs for old releases, even the last one, since the new programs > > use so many new features. > > > > Only when you can install a new RPM on a 3yo kernel/desktop will > > linux be ready for the mass market desktop. > > > > Comments? > > Hi, > I am sorry but I really have to disagree with you. I started out using > Mandrake 7.0 and have been using Mandrake releases ever since. The > latest version 8.0 despite it's very few (but very,very annoying newtork > set-up bugs) is an OS and desktop that I would quite happy to use for > three years without changing it. It makes windows software look > positively clunkey and as for ease of use if you are a windows type USER > and not a geek as you put it the complexity of it is not relevent. I was > so impressed with 8.0 I decided to use it at my workplace; in > combination with Star Office it does most of what windows can do and in > the majority of cases a good deal faster and intuitively. On the point > of the three year update why should your dear wife be unhappy with > keeping KDE for three years since the only change she has had is to the > internet browser? My goodness you have a choice of at least three > different browsers and as for desktops I think there are probably five > (although I haven't counted) I don't have the "Power Pack" but I suspect > there will be more than a few more on that. Remember all this is in one > release. I have to confess that when I started out with Linux I had > similar views but I was set straight by Civeleme and now admit to being > a convert, there is no way I would want to go back to windows blues. > Notwithstanding that Microsoft are deserving of the fate of Sodom and > Gommorah for the way that they conduct their business. (Sorry couldn't > resist it after some of their latest stunts). > > How will Linux go forward? That is the question in my mind having > realised that the standard of the OS is more capable of competing > against the "best" commercial offerings. The greatest hurdle is the > capitalist society in which many of us live. I believe that this list > (and the Linux cause) would be better served by lively minds trying come > up with means of promoting the Linux cause AND making a living rather > than posting deliberately provocative and negative emails. The GPL is a > most wonderful thing but it will take minds as skilful as those that > conceived it to get the best from it. I believe that it may be the > older citizens of some societies that might provide the key. I know many > "old" people who have taken up computing in their 60's or after > retirement, many of these have grandchildren. Imagine if you will a > Linux provider writing or porting some of those little educational games > that I recall buying for my childrens edification when there was only > DOS. Grandfather showing little Billie how to make the tree get bigger > by spelling the word right and all the time expounding the virtues of > the GPL to the childs father and how if anything goes wrong someone just > dials up from the internet and fixes it for them. Alas not for free but > for a modest sum. To some this may be an idealistic image but it is one > that Linux and the FSF can honestly claim for itself and one which > Microsoft certainly cannot. > > Colin H Close > > > P.S. My apologies to any that are offended by this post. ---------------------------------------- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; name="message.footer" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Description: ----------------------------------------
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