Hi, No body uses just the Kernel i.e. Linux. People use OpenOffice, PHP, Python, Ruby, MySQL and Apache. And various other system tools and utilities.
As per your question: "What would you like to change about Linux and why?" The software systems and Internet has matured a lot in the last 5 years. Its now Web2.0 and soon (read 10 years) to upgrade to Web 3.0. The users on Window$, Linux (+Android), Apple (Mac as well as iPAD) all have the same needs and same likes to use the tool which is a computing device. To shorten the discussion, I would like to tell you something: 1. This is just the dawn of Information Age. 2. The promise of this age is not just free email a/cs, blogs and word processors. 3. There are 7 pillars of information age: Pillar 1 - Information Itself Pillar 2 - Communication Pillar 3 - Automation Pillar 4 - Recreation Pillar 5 - Dissemination Pillar 6 - Transaction Pillat 7 - Education 1. Now you see Information are the news & info dot-coms. The progress in this area since last 10 years have been to giving RSS feeds. 2. Similarly Communication had Emails, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger & ICQ. Now we have Skype, GTalk and FaceTime in mobiles. Also smart-phones iPhone and Androids. Don't forget FaceBook - the social networking site. Social Media Web has also happened. 3. Automation was always there as MRP (Material Resource Planning), MRP2, ERP and then CRM. The stalwarts include Salesforce and Oracle. 4. Recreation started with mp3s and mp3 players for the desktop and then finally Apple iPOD. Now iTunes is the only standard Mp3 and Movie retailer. Also Gaming has been on the forefront, right since M$ Solitaire. 5. Dissemination began late with Wikipedia and Blogs & Twitters. 6. Transaction - eCommerce, Paying Bills, PayPal and a lot more. 7. Education - It is still in its version 1. We have KhanAcademy, LearnZillion, iTunes University and hundreds more. So if you have to think from the users perspective, you first have to draw the different personas of the individual. 1. A joe would need all what I have written above as the 7 pillars 2. A developer would need better authoring environment like the best of the breed Visual Studio or Net Beans. 3. A artist or photographer cannot survive without tools from Adobe or Apple (iMovie, Garageband). Most of the stuff on the web is Linux is not true but yes it is either GPL or Creative Commons or BSD license. Its true that OpenBSD is far superior than Linux, but you need to be a good hacker (potential to learn more) to be able to use it. Its true that all web stuff like Wordpress & even FaceBook is made using OpenSource & GPL PHP. Even Twitter is made using Ruby On Rails (again OpenSource MIT License) Open Source Rocks!!! For what is open source read all the license at http://www.opensource.org Free Software is not Open Source and is not even successful. When the people who wanted to business using GPL code came together they realised that they cannot call their work Free Software and hence they coined the word Open Source. These 2 approaches are distinctly different though both have the dot-2-dot same source code & binaries. It was RMS who started this project as GNU the free Unix OS. He failed in making the kernel of the project, because he chose a superior architecture called Micro Kernel. Linus Torvalds then a student at University of Helsinki in Finland wrote a kernel for fun & called it Linux. He chose monolithic architecture which is far inferior than Microkernel architecture. But since the speed of the microprocessors have increased tremendously since then, now it does not matters if the kernel is monolithic or microkernel. RMS still pleads the world to call Linux as GNU/Linux. Some follow him, many don't. The needs of any user, whether on Window$, or Linux or Macintosh is the same. What do you say? Regards, Navin Dhahnuka On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 4:13 PM, J T Dsouza <[email protected]> wrote: > On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 2:33 PM, Priyanka Sarkar <[email protected] > >wrote: > > > > > Dear Mr Dsouza, > > > > > > On 06/02/14 13:17, J T Dsouza wrote: > > > >> Linux - the kernel. > >> Get rid of binary blobs in drivers. > >> > >> GNU/Linux distros are a different ball game altogether. > >> > >> Debian is doing just fine. > >> > > Thanks a lot! Can you please elaborate? > > > > The question is framed wrongly. > > If you say linux, you are talking of the kernel. > The question is of interest to technologists and developers. > > If you are asking the question from a user perspective, you again have tech > users - sysadmins, software developers etc - and ordinary desktop users. > > So who is the question targetted to? > > Regards, > > Priyanka > > > > > >> > >> > >> On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 11:29 AM, Priyanka Sarkar<[email protected]> > >> wrote: > >> > >> Dear All, > >>> > >>> We have come up with a story idea and would really appreciate if you > chip > >>> in and share your views on this. The topic is :'What would you like to > >>> change about Linux and why?' Please let us have your insightful > >>> suggestions > >>> on the same. > >>> > >>> Regards, > >>> > >>> Priyanka > >>> -- > >>> http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/listinfo/linuxers > >>> > >>> > > -- > > http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/listinfo/linuxers > > > -- > http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/listinfo/linuxers > -- http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
