Hello fellow 'GNU/Linux'ers, This is an old thread... precisely speaking from 20th Oct. '05. I am sorry, I noticed this mail only today... you see, I don't get to check mail regularly. "Is GNU/Linux is ready for the desktop?" First, I would say 50-50 and after thinking twice, NO. I have thought over this again and again. Even if I would love to say YES, it would be unfair or not an 'open' answer, which would counter the whole concept of GNU and Freedom, the 'base' on which GNU/Linux is 'built' on.
Even though I fully migrated to GNU/Linux (except for the OS called FreeDOS I still keep) in mid-2002, and even when I have to use Ms systems in my office, at home I have got my parents to work / check mail / hear music / see movies / play games on our GLx box. Yes, at their level / age and for that sort of 'just working', it is possible, after I had setup / configured everything. And at your level, for your type of tweaking / hacking / configuring, it should be possible, maybe after reading manuals / trying time and again. But, for an intermediate user level, i.e. for users like me, who I believe are more in number than the other two types combined, it is really a pain. But for my deep interest in Freedom / Free Software / GNU and the like, I would have left it long ago. And I migrated to GNU/Linux not because of its security / safety / stability or anything of that sort, it is just for that feeling of independence that I get, that I continue using GNU/Linux. And 'not standardized' means, the literal meaning of those two words used. This is because of the vast no. of distros and the umpteen no. of packaging systems we have. That is why I am always trying to promote something which is distro independent. But, alas, those who control the GNU/Linux world, G/LUGs like you never get interested in something brought up by somebody who tries to unify the distro world and moreover you people continue with your distro / packager wars by trying to establish its supremacy. I am sorry, if I look like complaining, because that would be the last thing I want to do, since the part played by G/LUGS in promoting GNU/Linux is beyond explanation. I believe, a standard, distro-independent, unified type of a packaging system / package installer with a click and execute methodology would be the first step to standardize the GNU/Linux desktop. Just imagine, if from a Linux SW website, if a user is able to download certain packages and install it on my desktop, what would stop him / her from downloading / installing it? Instead, when I see a source package, with compiling being one of my worst enemies (and of the group I represent) and with a reply that I get in binary language, why should I waste time trying to download / install it? Now, if there was a 'unified package' with a more sensible reply with the missing dependecies, I could search for the dependencies on the net which would be available in the 'unified package' itself, which I could download / install it in no time and get the original package working. Please can you see the difference?. I do not have much hope, even this time, but I am trying to make you kindly understand the difference in having a click and execute type of a unified, distro independent type of package(r). I undestand the practical difficulty in bringing up such a thing, but I just want you to know and understand the difference it makes to the common man like me. And, please don't say the common man doesn't want to use GNU/Linux. The common man does want to use it, but it's the absence of these type of things that is stopping him from using it. Now, if you understand this concept, the other things that are required will slowly fall into place. There are much more which I want on my GNU/Linux system; I will slowly write it all down, when I have time. And thank you so much for your patience. Zaheer M K GNU/Linux user #351122 Registered at http://counter.li.org -- ___________________________________________________ Play 100s of games for FREE! http://games.mail.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://ilug-cochin.org/pipermail/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org/attachments/20060225/0e885393/attachment.htm
