On Sunday 20 January 2008 06:06, Philippe Landau wrote: > Dave Barton wrote: > > From: Philippe Landau <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > >> You are tenacious, Dave, great :-) > > > > Some may say tenacious, others would say that I am too stupid to know > > when to give up. ;) > > You wanted to but were kind enough to honour the efforts of list members > :-) > > >> Still no joy with Lilo ? > > > > Did give LiLo a shot, but the situation is even worse. On boot I get > > half a screen full of 01s and then total lockup, requiring a hardware > > reset. Thanks for trying to help, but I am sad to say Microsoft has won > > this box. > > Did anyone ever attempt to make a systematic survey > of reasons why Linux remains such a small player ? > Of course corruption on a massive scale is involved > in selling Windows to governments and corporations. > But why is the percentage of surfers using Linux so small ? > Is it mainly because of the games or are the shortcomings > of Linux an important factor and which ones most ? > > Kind regards Philippe
>From my own point of view, the lack of support for peripherals is one of the biggest problems for Linux. Yes, I know that the source codes are not available, and I'm not a real programmer myself, but some of this stuff could be reverse-engineered, rather than every six months a new version of the OS, full of bugs. Fix some version of Linux, then concentrate on getting things to work with it. When you can plug in almost any name-brand printer, almost any USB camera, drive, memory card, etc., then concentrate on getting unique Windows programs to work flawlessly by emulation--I think of AutoCad, GW Basic, Borland Pascal, Corel Draw, and so on (maybe some do already, but it's easier to just go to Windows to run them)--then I think Linux has a much better chance to catch on. While Linux seems to be pointed at the business world, which has, in general, a rather narrow batch of program types--word processing, spread sheets, and slide illustrations, and can pretty much do that, it needs to become more friendly to the home user, who would certainly prefer not to have to pay off M/S every year or so, as is becoming obviously their way of life. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."--Ann Landers. And, of course, games. I'm not a gamer. I play solitaire sometimes, but that's about it. But games would get a _big_ play (no pun intended) if there were a lot for Linux. One problem I see: Linux is sorta free--if you don't want a lot of the good stuff*--but to get the freebie, you have to have a computer running an OS. It seems to be getting more expensive and complicated to get an OS on disk, so the idea of getting a version that does everything on an intallable disk set, with a manual, and is as bug-free as possible for a reasonable price, that I can buy, preferably at Borders, that will last for years, is something I would really appreciate. *SuSE/Novell has already cut out a lot of the good stuff that used to come with the OS. Free or paid. For SHAME! (It would seem to me that an entrepenour who sold the "good stuff" on a disk compatible with SuSE could make a buck at it. Except that the damned dependencies seem to change with every version.) --doug Blessed are the peacemakers ... for they shall be shot at from both sides. --A.M. Greeley -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
