I (being American from the Viet Nam era) have the answer to the "war against
Gates". we pack up, declare ourselves the winner, and not play anymore. we
don't need to be against anyone. we just need to be FOR opensource. (imho)
On Tuesday 10 July 2001 06:36, Len Lawrence wrote:
> On Mon, 9 Jul 2001, tazmun wrote:
> > > But regardless of
> > > whether she was a plant, she's abrasive, offensive, and
> > > utterly thankless to the Linux community as a whole.
> > > (Isolated "thank yous" on the list doesn't count.)
> >
> > And you sir are very close minded. You don't want to listen to new ideas
> > and thinking if they don't fall into your narrow guidelines. I have
> > reason to suspect that you would be perfectly happy if Linux remained an
> > elite OS out of the reach of the average user putting yourself on some
> > sort of pedestal. Sorry I don't deal well with snooty "I'm better then
> > you types". Judith gave the list some constructive criticism in hopes I'm
> > sure that the right people might be listening. I distinctly remember her
> > thanking the community for all the work that has been done and credited
> > the community with developing a system with great potetial. Maybe not an
> > exact quote but I think the meaning was close. All things change. They
> > get better or get worse and/or die eventually. I believe the community
> > knows this and realizes that Linux's future depends on innovation and new
> > ideas and thinking.
> >
> > With that said I wouldn't be surprised if this community desires me to
> > leave, but that's ok for I don't desire to be somewhere where speaking
> > out for your convictions and ideas is not acceptable.
> >
> > Tazmun
>
> Dear tazmun
>
> Please don't leave the list. It is essential for the community of
> Linux users to accept criticism, constructive or otherwise,
> particularly from recent converts like Judith, and important to
> avoid complacency, and paranoia. Speaking for myself,
> it was refreshing to read those first posts from Judith, interesting
> to see how a deserter from the other camp actually views modern
> operating systems. As somebody else has pointed out, most PC users
> see Windows as the face of computers and most of them view computers
> as a commodity item like a VCR or television or games console. Their
> mindset is unlikely to change. What do they care about the niceties
> of Open Source, or free software versus commercial? There is no point
> in trying to reach them, and that is what will continue to fill Billy's
> coffers for a long time to come.
>
> Many of the diehard Linuxers like me come from a background which has
> exposed them to many different operating systems and many different
> ways of applying computers; business, technical, realtime and embedded
> systems and so on. With 39 years involvement in computers behind me I
> could never take Windows seriously. It was a toy operating system, but
> like GNU/Linux has evolved and should now perhaps be regarded as a
> real operating system. However, I shall always loathe it. I found
> the interface ugly and awkward to use, counter-intuitive to someone
> with a long history of command line operations. There seem to be a
> lot of Linux users who would take the opposite viewpoint - witness the
> popularity of KDE - so Linux obviously has the potential to please
> former Windows users, with the added bonus of far more freedom and
> choice.
>
> <rant>
> That last point, choice, is another reason why I detest Microsoft
> and all its hangers on. Gates started a bandwagon rolling which
> started to gather momentum ten years ago. Software houses jumped
> on it but were too lazy, ignorant, or greedy to consider providing
> support for alternative operating systems when they became viable.
> The business world in particular seemed only too eager to go along
> with a company whose obvious intention was to take over the world
> by imposing its own standards on everybody, to strangle all
> competition, and fleece the punters. Linux does allow choice, but
> many doors are still closed to it - it is continually being
> sidelined. For instance, the Encyclopaedia Britannica will never be
> available for Unix* systems. The UK Ordnance Survey likewise. I
> would have bought them. The same applies to much educational software
> and language courses. Writing to these companies does no good - they
> simply bin the letters.
> </rant>
>
> So please bear with us. As you have probably noted, there are many
> shades of opinion amongst Linux users and developers on almost
> every subject. That is why it sometimes appears to lurch forward
> rather than evolve smoothly. There are internal threats to the OS,
> like forking and the multitude of distributions, so the developers
> have to divert some of their energies from the war against Gates.
