-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Saturday 12 Jan 2008, Sriram J wrote: >[snip] > Can some one tell me what is the positioning of linux as an > operating system. > who are target audience/consumers of linux supposed to be. > > is it for the general users who want an alternative for windows or > the few fakirs[1] who put ideology above all and are not willing to > compromise at any cost. > > is linux intended by design to always remain out of the reach of the > person who refuses to jump through hoops to get the hardware to work > . > > i myself back in the days had to switch to windows because i bought > an unsupported video card and did not have the money to buy an new > one.
The reason you may face issues with some hardware with Linux is that the OS grew organically, not from committee. The first developers of Linux were all programmers. As a programmer, what do you think I'd want to develop first for a new platform, a good text editor that allows me to write more code, or a set of pretty icons that make my desktop look beautiful but don't help me with my job at all? That's not to say that Linux doesn't have beautiful icons, just that programmers like to solve their own problems first. Which is why Linux has one of the most solid IP stacks in the world, and is stable and secure -- I'd be more interested in having a fast, stable, safe system first and an easy to use one (for some values of ``easy to use'') later. Today there's enough momentum and stability with Linux to enable developers to look at other aspects of computing, namely ease of use and aesthetics. Examples of applications that perform as well as or better than their proprietary counterparts include KDE and OpenOffice.org. Agreed, Linux still lags in certain areas (e.g. webcam support), but given the pace at which development is happening, that's not likely to be an issue for long. After all, it still installs and runs on more and more diverse hardware than, say, Winduhs could even dream of :) Also note that a lot of the issues that you have in mind are due to vendors not providing Linux developers with adequate specifications to allow them (the developers) to build drivers for utilising their (the vendors') hardware. If you find that Linux doesn't support your Phillips webcam (because Phillips refuses to share interfaces with the developer community), would you blame Linux or Phillips? If your proprietary Nvidia drivers crash your laptop on suspend or resume, wouldn't you agree that the blame lies with Nvidia for not working with developers and assisting them in developing open source drivers for their graphics cards? The developers are willing but the company is weak ;) So yes, problems remain; some of them are because of low interest in the developers for a particular feature, and some are due to close-minded vendors who cling to some perceived business advantage at the risk of alienating a growing part of their market. But keep writing, at least we have a great support infrastructure (voted the best in the world a few years ago :) Regards, - -- Raju - -- Raj Mathur [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://kandalaya.org/ Freedom in Technology & Software || February 2008 || http://freed.in/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F PsyTrance & Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFHiGhiyWjQ78xo0X8RAsDBAJ4uXg3wP1cUXSBIt8Ma63QUmVIOtwCfa3HA eJkd8AzcZuL3httX5d3l1gM= =I7Bo -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- [email protected] http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Next Event: http://freed.in - February 22/23, 2008 Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
