But let's not forget that Linux users are hopelessly optimistic about hardware support...*http://xkcd.org/644*
-- Robert On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 6:00 PM, Douglas Roberts <[email protected]>wrote: > 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 > >> >> >> >> >> > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
