Wade Curry wrote:
I'm actually serious. The more people that start to use it on
their desktop, the more the distros cater to what the "average
user" wants from their "computing experience".
Wade, you are right on with everything you have said in this email an dI
agree 100%. The distros have always tried to cater to what the "average
user" wants but the technology itself has limited them. It takes a long
time to build good software and even longer to try to make it compatible
with other stuff like constantly changing hardware or other companies
proprietary file specifications such as OpenOffice tries to do.
I don't want or trust mono. I don't want or trust MS-Compatible
office apps. I don't want or trust closed protocols, fileformats,
or source code. My wife, my kids, and I have been using Linux
exclusively for years now. I made this move to find some freedom
from all that. Unfortunately I'm now watching as these things are
becoming more central to various Linux distros.
I don't want or trust Mono either. I have known a few people who use it
and they just don't seem to understand the principles which have gotten
Linux as far as it has. I support ODF as far as file formats for
documents goes. A lot of people are pushing those things to be more
central to Linux distros but in the long run I don't believe they will
succeed because they will have the same inherent problems on Linux that
they have had on other proprietary platforms. Fortunately they cannot
drag us down with them as we will still be able to use ODF.
I'm now quite convinced that the problems users have with Windows
are quite largely their own doing. If presented with an
opportunity to make e-mail or web-browsing more safe, the average
user of just about any popular OS will avoid it if it requires
learning new software... and will avoid it like the *plague* if it
requires learning new behavior. If it requires building a new
frame of reference for the topic, they may well become down-right
angry at the very suggestion.
Very well put. Learning something new is hard for most people. I see it
every day at work. Most of my coworkers who are more familiar with
Windows are happy to let a big project depend on Windows. I have to step
in with my input to convince them otherwise and sometimes it is quite
difficult. People go with what they are already familiar with and fight
to do so.
I'm becoming more aware of the cultural pressures that define
computer usage. As more people flood into the "Linux Camp", it
seems to me that we don't have so much more innovation, but we have
a lot more users and developers who don't understand the values
that shaped Unix in general. There are more people than ever
before who want their Windows-based software to run on Linux, or at
least as close a clone as they can get. And there are more people
than ever who want to write that software.
There is definitely potential for a tragedy of the commons as has
happened with the Internet but I am hoping that since it is fairly easy
for any one camp to break away from the rest we can let some misguided
Linux users go down the proprietary path and let themselves get stuck
just like the other proprietary camps have while the rest of us soldier
on into the future.
I have no desire to stifle their efforts, but I would still be
immensely happier if they would do this in a different arena.
There is an OSS project that provides a more Windows-like OS called
ReactOS.
http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html
I'm pretty sure any such efforts are doomed. It is far easier for a
proprietary software company to change things and cook up new secret
formats than it is for the OSS guys to reverse engineer them so I'm
pretty sure these guys will always be far enough behind as to not
present much competition.
I don't completely discount the efforts to create compatibility.
If we Linux users couldn't participate equally in network data
sharing, then the project would be every bit as vibrant as the
HURD. Still, I'd rather that people who don't want to change their
thinking would use some other OS. It seems that these users think
that the main reason for compatibility is to prevent them from
having to change too much when they are really only interested in
saving money. In contrast, I think many of the programmers are
totally in love with the liberty that comes with OSS.. so close,
and yet still so far away.
I am all for compatibility with truly open standards and tcp/ip is one
such standard. It seems to me that nobody seems to be interested in
saving money when it comes to software. This is why saying that Linux
costs nothing is not a very effective argument. Everyone who has money
seems quite happy to cough up the money for the copies of Windows. My
current employer spends tons of money on software with little regard to
the problems it will cause them in the future in an effort to not have
to learn anything new or to be able to play CYA by having a proprietary
software vendor to call for support (usually for problems caused by the
proprietary software vendor).
I nominate Miguel deIcaza to be their representative.
Seconded.
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