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I'm one of those "average users" I guess. I
am certainly not what you would call a "geek", but can find my way around
windows without any problem and am currently running Mandrake 8.1 on my oldest
machines....a P166 with 94 mb ram. I have been using computers for
about 10 years now and learned most of what I know in Windows 95 :)
I sincerely believe that Microsoft needs a strong
competitor on the desktop. This is one of the reasons that I support RL
(can't remember its new name right now) even though I still have not had a
chance to install it. I will also support Mandrake and any other
Linux version that takes aim at the desktop. As for RedHat, frankly I
applaud any effort to gain visibility for Linux to that average "dumb-ass" user
on the street.....even if it means silly tv advertising. You see,
the average joe or jane doesn't give one rip about the machinations of the
kernel or the notion of making your operating system do things your way.
All they want is to be able to do their work, send email and play
games. They need an operating system that will support a decent
Office Suite. They want to be able to connect to the internet and
send email to all their beer drinking buddies. Some of them may want to be
able to do web or other graphical work. Right now, the only thing that
Linux doesn't have, is a decent 3d environment generator (sans Bryce or Vue
d'Esprit). Once the software can meet the same level of quality as
that which currently operates under Windows (and I agree on Star
Office......it's just about there), I will be strictly a Linux user.
I don't like AOL any better than some of the rest
of you do, but if it will help get Linux on the minds of those who are currently
spending money on Microsoft products instead, then I say Go For It!
For the geeks who could care less about desktop
useage and would prefer to spend their day "playing with their
Kernels"............well..............they will still have Debian, Tiny, Peanut,
and a wide range of other options available to them.
Sandy
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2002 1:14
AM
Subject: [rl-users] Re: Thoughts on
DL
Wow! Impressive! Especially the multisyllable
reference! Humm... Is someone hinting that I may be an idiot? Well, that just
may be true! But, the point I'm trying to get at here is that AOL has
absoluletely bastardized everything they have put their hands on since the day
of their inception, and taken advantage of less *technically savvy* users
for just as long with their marketing glitz. Red Hat is (in my humble opinion)
a great product. I'd hate to see it destroyed by a hack fest of an
operation like AOhell. I don't particularly care about the business, or the
money. Just the product. That's all. Plain and simple.
To be honest,
Robert, I'm not sure why you assumed *I* needed a history
lesson (SCOUnix? Yep...Been there, done that...), but thank you just the
same! ;-)
Have a great night!
-Mark
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2002 10:34
PM
Subject: Thoughts on DL
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Let's
not talk about "selling out" (re: possible purchase by AOL
or RH), but
about entrepreneurship (Hey, Ma! -- Look! More than
three
syllables!)
Several things motivate a business: Making money
(otherwise,
just work for someone else), offer a new product, better
service
or otherwise distinguishably (and hopefully better) offering for
the customers, the excitement of the challenge and perhaps a
wish to
see one's name in lights.
If RH "sells out" (based on interviews with
the founders of RH),
I would say it is most likely because they see
themselves as the
"leading edge" of the Linux movement and will like to
see it do
well in the marketplace and on the desktop. They've done
a good
job, but they've also bought into the "rush to market with the
latest" approach to their distribution and it's already caused a
number of embarrasing releases that wouldn't quite work. As I
understand their philosopy, a well-structured sale to AOL would
actually fit the vision they had when they started.
Joe's vision,
as he states it, is to accept that MS has done a
damn good job of
packaging and has had any number of really good
ideas (many of them
originally stolen from Unix and Apple), but
has put them together in a
package thatis both buggy and
appealing in its simplicity for the average
user.
Linux, until Joe, seemed primarily designed for the geek or the
technologically proficient (same thing, actually) -- a tiny
minority
of users. More and more people have had the vision of
producing a
distribution of linux that would appeal to the
average desktop
user. What was needed was a collection of
easy-to-use productivity
and entertainment products that
performed pretty much as
expected.
As recently as three years ago, all we could find were some
mediocre word processors, a few clumsy spreadsheet programs that
reminded me of the kinds available in the early 1980's, tons of
klutzy editors (sorry you emacs and vi fans -- but that's the
judgment of the vast majority of ordinary users), a few
graphics tools, nothing really useful for accounting and, in
general, a really nice operating system and not much else. Unix
on a desktop -- and not much else. (Except we did have
TeX.)
Within a year, we had Star Office 5.2 -- a really good and
usable word processor and spreadsheet application that I was
already
using, Moneydance -- a modest but powerful accounting
package, and some
GUI based text editors that really worked.
Today, we have some really
good applications, Kapital (not quite
there, folks, but, within a month
or so will be) for accounting
and I have absolutely no need for Windows
for anything except my
taxes.
I'm running, not on the latest and
greatest, but on an old 200
MHz machine with only 128MB RAM and 4GB of
hard disk space.
It's as fast as any Windows programs, is rapidly
losing its
clumsiness, and, thanks to Joe, not overcrowded with
applications I will not use in a month of Sundays. Instead, I
have a lean, mean and fantastically well designed desktop
program
with the ability to add other programs that I would
want, but without
having options I don't give a damn about.
In other words, Joe has
fulfilled the early (and now abandoned)
dream of Caldera's desktop
installation plus taken some of the
beneficial lessons from MS.
Rather than condemn MS for bugs and
complexities and really difficult
administration tools, he has
praised them for their successes in getting
so many people to
using computers productively and entertainingly and
brought many
of their best features to Linux.
And it keeps
getting better -- month by month. MS gets better
and gets more
bugs with each distribution. Its security stinks
(way too many
holes and why they still have Outlook Express --
perhaps for "if you use
it, you had better look out" -- I have
no idea) and its memory
management leaves just a little bit to
be desired. I mean, I hate
those crashes and page faults.
I'm excited by what Joe is
doing. But I don't jump on RH for
"selling out." That's only
the way it looks if you think of any
big business as an enemy (why
anyone would think that way, only
their psychiatrist would know).
In fact, it is my hope that
this new company becomes huge and
successful. If it does, it
will only stay that way by keeping its
present vision. If it
doesn't, if it becomes buggy and clumsy,
someone else will
replace it.
That's the way of
business.
- --
Robert Black Eagle
Bus. Site: http://www.desertsilver.com
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