Joe wrote:
Bob, I'm going to ask an apparently stupid question. Since I've been
a diehard Mac user since the Lisa, and it has always let me get so
much of my work done that I never even thought about looking at
anything else, will you please, as succinctly as possible, let "us"
know how this thing called Linux, in all of it's various flavors?
works. How can something as enormous as this potentially is, be
coordinated to the point that something truly useful emerges? I find
it pretty bewildering, and cannot see how it can fit into my
computing life. Keep in mind that I was over 50 when I undertook the
mastering of a new tool and didn't even know what a "k" was at that
point.
--------------------------------------------------------
Hi Joe!
No, that's not a stupid question, and even at the age of 62 I'm not sure I know
how to answer you adequately, but I'll try.
If I didn't live in Brazil where economic life is difficult, it is possible
that I would have bought myself a Macintosh and never looked back. But because
of the expense, the general public never use Macs in Brazil, only PCs. What's
more, Windows and accompanying software are invariably pirated, not on account
of the inherent dishonesty of Brazilians, but because it has been the only way
that they could participate in computer usage: almost nobody in Brazil has even
10% of the money required to use software legally.
Such pirating will probably come to an end with the protective mechanisms of
Windows Vista. (Personally, I think that this marks the beginning of the end of
Microsoft. Allowing a certain amount of piracy was part of the secret of their
success, related to the essential characteristic of wide distribution and
fame.) So in countries that are not rich, the use of Linux - the only cheap
alternative - becomes not so much an option as a necessity. The Linux operating
system has now been adopted officially by the Brazilian government.
Linux is what it is, and we need to deal with it. When faced with a question that appears
to be enormously complex, we often feel intimidated. But there is sometimes a simple
answer. What I tried to point out in my post is that from a personal point of view we
don't need to solve the "Linux problem" at all, we just need to back the
apparent winner among the distros (Ubuntu) and to be happy with that. That is, unless the
situation changes and another leader emerges later on.
I don't know how this thing called Linux, in all of its various flavours, works. Nor do I want to
know. I don't have the brains to deal with the enormous variety and technical complexity presented
by around 300 different distributions of the Linux system. But I do need to be practical in my
programming, and catering for usage on more than one platform or distribution at a time is a very
difficult thing to do. If it involves the usage of the peculiarities of the computer's file system
to any real degree, the idea of "cross-distro" or "cross-platform" programming
becomes totally unviable.
If you live in the US and you are happy with your Macintosh, and your programs
have a satisfactory market, why the hell should you start mucking about with
Linux? I cannot think of any good reason, except perhaps curiosity, and the
fact that you can do it very easily through the use of a Live CD or pendrive.
Linux exists as a direct response to the sins committed by Microsoft throughout
the world, and no other reason. The neutralizing effect of its diversity is
also a direct consequence of the behaviour of Microsoft. The fact that it is
not a single company and that it belongs to everybody but nobody in particular
is the only way that it can defend itself against annihilation. It was the only
answer, and it is certainly a very good one.
Succinctly, something truly useful has emerged: Ubuntu.
Regards,
Bob
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