To counter: Competition Is Good!
More deep, penetrating comments below. On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 5:37 PM, Owen Densmore <[email protected]> wrote: > On Oct 10, 2009, at 4:33 PM, Douglas Roberts wrote: > > Geeze! > > Why try so hard, when there are good <http://www.ubuntu.com/>, > viable<http://www.kubuntu.org/> > alternatives <http://wiki.centos.org/>? > > --Doug > > > As wonderful as linux world is, they still are at war with each other. > They do not have a unified software package management system across them > all. There are differing window systems and UI toolkits. > So? Pick the one you like. > Cut/paste is not always assured to work across different UI toolkits. And > linux servers are still the core target, not desktops. > Disagree about the core target. The desktop is (K)Ubuntu's core target. Cut and paste used to be a pain in the ass, but I haven't had any problems yet this year. Perhaps because I'm mostly running (K)Ubuntu on the 20 or so systems I manage on my various projects. For example, I have no (absolutely zero) problems cutting and pasting between a VNC session running on a CENTOS system to an Ubuntu host, nor vice versa. Nor between apps on either system (including EMACS, which always tended to be a bit different). > So much like the Mac/Windows incompatibilities, the linux platforms have > their own incompatibilities, thus form their own siloed communities. Your > foo won't work with my bar. > Haven't seen this. I use apps on Ubutnu, Kubuntu RHEL, SuSE, CENTOS, and Mandrake. I've never had an app work on one distro, but not another. [Discounting some of the oddball distros, like Arch and Slackware (where I started, btw).] Arch and Slackware are both good examples of active Darwinism in the OS world. Soon to become extinct. > > And the linux developers are hypersensitive to what their users consider > trivial, thus creating unnecessary divergence. > Agree. But, if I may: we Linux Fanbois pale in comparison to you Apple worshipers. Look up "Fanatic" on WikiPedia and you will find a picture of a wild-eyed geek brandishing an iWhaetver. > It does seem to be getting better, with Ubuntu leading the way to desktop > centric linux. Maybe it'll all converge eventually with a single window > system, desktop, UI toolkit, software package system, and application > interoperability (cut/paste etc). > I don't want that, because (wait for it) COMPETITION IS GOOD. As soon as one mega Corp/Distro maintainer achieves dominance, market sensitivity goes out the window. The tension between Ubuntu's Gnome bigots, and Kubuntu's KDE bigots had hardened both UIs. > > But until you spend less time fussing to get your system working than linux > requires, and have universal drivers so that when > you buy a laptop all of its features work very well with your linux distro, > and maybe even have a large number of vendors supporting linux systems, .. > you still have the linux of old: fussy, incomplete, and incompatible. > Universal, shmuniversal. I just want it to work, without having to leap hurdles. I don't care if it works for you, I just want it to work for me. > > You'll know you've > arrived when you don't ask your linux packing laptop friend which distro he's > using. > Back to that competition thing again. > > -- Owen > --Doug > > > > >
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