Sabi ni Junix noong 9/17/08 2:20 AM: > But, you may want to think about what you are doing. You are a senior member > of this list and hearing a senior member bursting with anger with Linux as > unusable OS for your laptop, its not the kind of promotion that will help plug > promote linux (constructive or not). > > This goes out to all the other senior member of this list. Like it or not, > your behavior can affect a lot specially to new members of this list and how > we all promote linux and open source.
I for one prefer to let newbies know what they're in for. I wouldn't want to deceive them with promises of a fire-and-forget desktop replacement for Windows, then get hate mail from them because their Winmodems don't work or they can't connect to their APs with WPA. Let them know what they may be in for, and help them when we can. For instance, I'm on a couple of BeleniX mailing lists, mainly to see if it's feasible as another Windows desktop replacement. Am I discouraged by the problems? In some ways, yes, but then I hear enough success stories to give it a try, although maybe not on a laptop. I'll consult the HCL to determine what hardware BeleniX supports, then build a desktop based on that. > Don't we all have our up and a lot of downs with linux. I for one still is > strugling with linux DDNS inclusion in windows DDNS. its been a year and my > boss is still pressing me to do it. I just hope it doesn't reflect in my epas > (e performance appraisal system). But, I still believe that Linux as a whole > is a good OS and can work side by side with any other OS out there. And, I > believe, with linux, a large amount of money spend on license paid can be > better use to feed the children, the sick, and the weak. Of course this goes > for UN agencies and government not the private companies. For the private > companies, they better give ceasar what is to ceasar (license fees). I've pointed this out on the list before, but it's worth repeating: "Think free speech, not free beer." As a corollary, there's a price to pay for freedom, and one of the components of that price is the time you spend getting things to work -- or getting hardware that does work in the first place. As another corollary, it's not just governments and NGOs and non-profits that benefit from FOSS. Rich for-profits benefit from the (in theory) eternal support for the software that keeps their businesses running. Not even Microsoft or IBM can claim that -- anyone remember NT for the Alpha, or OS/2? -- Daniel O. Escasa independent IT consultant and writer contributor, Free Software Magazine (http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com) personal blog at http://descasa.i.ph Twitter page at http://www.twitter.com/silverlokk If we choose being kind over being right, we will be right every time. _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List http://lists.linux.org.ph/mailman/listinfo/plug Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
