On Feb 10, 2004, at 10:02 PM, Paul Rushing wrote: > Phil Waring wrote: >> Okay. As luck would have it, LINUX, being very poor, has not the >> clout >> or $ to acquire codes required to run certain hardware. So, who is >> hurt? > > Hardware manufacturers are hurt by losing customers that buy hardware > that supports linux. Users that buy hardware that is Windows > specific lose because they are locked-in to a vendor, and when they > want to move to linux they are held back by their investment in > hardware that's not compatible. > I would also add that it is the "cheap" generic, knock off vendors that generally do not support linux. If the hardware is worth the money, it will work. Take for instance the $10-15 winmodems from 5 years ago. If you bought a "real" modem instead of a software modem it would cost you $50 rather than $10. That company can afford to either release specs or even develop their own drivers. You get what you pay for when it comes to hardware. The winmodems worked solely in software since they did not have certain pieces of hardware included on the card.
If you go and buy a intel motherboard, I guarantee you the linux support will be there. However, if you buy a $15 motherboard cheapbits (or whatever their name is), good luck. I am not saying that you should have to pay top dollar for you hardware, but the moderately priced stuff should work pretty well. Additionally, you mentioned Big Blue. Comapnies like IBM and Sun, etc. generally go through much R&D before they decide on a set of hardware. Sun for instance spends tons of time on their hardware designs and much of it is proprietary. IBM is the same. Companies that are buying from Sun and IBM are looking for reliability rather than savings. Therefore, the hardware has been through the ringer. however, if you go to Joe Blow's Cheap Computer Depot, you get what you pay for. The other problem is that if you go bleeding edge, you may not have support yet. Linux takes a bit more time to get drivers. If the hardware is <6 months old, you may be out of luck for a few months. This is because of market share. Everyone releases to windows first, and then others later. >> Further, representations/documentation made by vendors of code called >> generically, linux, has been found to be often incorrect and/or >> insufficient. Some, if not all, such vendors irresponsibly offer no >> support or recompense, hiding behind legalese "software agreements" or >> bankruptcy. Again, who is the loser with respect to the stated >> situation? > > Linux both the kernel and the usual accompanying applications / > utilities are largely produced by volunteer programmers and released > to the world. Distributions collect these individual projects and > try to deliver a workable collection for use. Some vendors like > Redhat, Suse, etc do provide support for their versions... for a > price. This is the same situation that exists with commercial > vendors. > > You must remember that linux is not the entire suite of applications. Technically linux is more or less only the interface between user applications and the hardware. Hell, even the shell (command line, tools, etc) is a separate piece of software released by a separate working group. So, if you install Red Hat Linux, it is the kernel (linux) and a bunch of applications. Many of these applications run on windows also (Apache, PHP, Open Office, Mozilla, etc.) so it is not the Linux vendor's fault that the application documentation may or may not be up to par. Go to apache.org and look through their documentation. It is VERY good in most cases. However, it is not Linux per se. It runs on linux, but it also runs on my Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD,and windows boxes, etc, etc, etc. >> References on linux: Which version? Do such references offer a >> cookbook >> to get included software up and running? Let the buyer beware. > > Books on linux are out-of-date usually by the time they are published. > It's a constantly changing / improving software system. Using linux > is an ongoing learning process. > Again, the problem with a book on linux is that not only does the linux kernel constantly update and improve, so do the individual software packages. If you want help setting up your web server, go to apache.org, not redhat. If you want help setting up a mail server, go to sendmail, postfix, exim, or whatever SMTP tool you have chosen or were provided with. It is not the fault of Redhat (or Suse, mandrake, etc) that the individual software package's docs are not up to par. I might also add, if you are coming from a windows only world of computing, Linux (Unix in general) is a totally different world. You may be discouraged at first, but once you become comfortable with it, the sky (planets, galaxy, think big!) is the limit. Unix is a wonderful operating system that you can make do absolutely any thing you want. Linux is even better because it is free and will run on commodity hardware. As John Hebert already said, the effort that you may spend learning Linux/Unix will be rewarded. Part of that reward is having total control over your operating system. Another reward is the better understanding you will have of your computer if you are coming from a windows centric environment. One of the best rewards is actually having a stable, mostly secure operating system, which for all of the billions of dollars that Bill *freaking* Gates has, he STILL can't accomplish that with windows. Hope this helps, Shannon > > > _______________________________________________ > General mailing list > [email protected] > http://brlug.net/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net > -- Shannon Roddy LIGO - Caltech 225.686.3106 (work) 225.933.7821 (cell) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
