[SlugLUG] Linux Is Not A Desktop Solution

Sat Apr 29 21:53:52 PDT 2006

Peter Belew wrote:
> Rohan -
>
> I have a number of problems with this.
>
> First, some details.
>
> FreeBSD is an outgrowth of the BSD Unix variants created at Berkeley,
> to be sure, but FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD are, like Linux,
> collaborative efforts by a number of people around the world. UC
> itself has little to do with these efforts any more, aside from some
> licensing issues.
However they do currently "host" the projects, so most would view them
as the "owner" of such.  (Remember, our target audience is Windows
users...who said they know anything about open collaborations? ;)
>
> Steve jobs did not create OS-X. It was created by his engineers. It
> does have a lot of nice applications running on it, and is apparently
> preferred by a lot of real-world people over Windows. Apple is an
> important innovator in fonts and GUI applications. That, by the way,
> wasn't Steve Jobs' doing - it was his being taken to Xerox PARC to see
> what could be done with a Personal Computer (that's also where the
> phrase P. C. was created, in the 1970s - I was there when that
> happened). Also, the OS-X kernel is different from the other BSD-based
> kernels in design, for better or for worse. OS design experts can give
> you a better evalution than I can, though.
I should have phrased that sentence better...I wanted to emphasize that
he was the driving force behind Mac OS X's creation...not that he
himself actually did anything. 
>
> Applications running on LInux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, and
> most other *nix operating systems run under X, a basic GUI system
> which antedates Linux by a long time and was created at MIT as an
> improvement over an earlier system developed at Stanford.
>
> I don't know what you mean by referring to Solaris/SunOS as a
> 'debacle'. Ignoring that, I did use Solaris/SunOS for a couple of
> years, running a GUI which was X based, and had no complaint about
> that. The GUI was not much different from that used by several other
> commercial UNIX systems, such as the SCO Unixes. The arrival of the
> free *nix systems has resulted in a variety of improved X software.
The 'debacle' is in reference to people arguing that Solaris/SunOS could
be used as a Desktop Solution.  I'd rather not get into it simply
because I don't know enough about it to make too many informed opinions.
>
> Currently I use Ubuntu Linux almost exclusively; before that RedHat
> and Fedora. I have no problem with the functionality of the OpenOffice
> applications that come with most distros, and only have to resort to
> Windows to run some tax software which has never been ported to X. My
> only complaint with OpenOffice is that programs would load and run
> faster, probably, if they were written in native code (C, C++,
> whatever) rather than in Java, and possibly segementing apart the
> various applications would keep the footprint smaller. Again, other
> experts can fill in some details about this issue.
I was trying not to bash Ubuntu in this article (okay, maybe a little),
my main goal is to stop the growing rampage to make Joe Anybody a Linux
user.  Once the (again, i'm coining terms at random) "mindless masses"
become Linux users...the gap between Windows and Linux would have to
shorten in order to accommodate for these users.  Openoffice is in
mostly java and python and is a tad slow.  And TurboTax has a web-based
tax return application that loves Firefox ;)
>
> In many ways, MS-Windows is a horror. It is slow to update, and the
> updating process is more complicated and slower that updating most
> Linux versions (I do both XP and Ubuntu updates frequently, so I have
> experience in that). It is still unstable.
Yes, Windows is quite horrible.  In fact, just today I reinstalled XP on
my parent's machine because it had been bogged down and I did not feel
up to finding the misbehaving application. 
>
> The one winner in MS-Windows is the GUI. It has been well thought out
> over a period of over 20 years. Practically everything can be done
> from the keyboard, if one doesn't want to use a mouse, or of something
> suddenly goes wrong with one's mouse. Microsoft's user testing has
> been very thorough, and it shows.
>
> But the Windows OS, and the programming model, show their roots going
> back to Windows 1.0, back before 1984. The code has been hacked on by
> generation after generation of inexperienced contract programmers and
> 6-month interns since the beginning, and that shows. There has been
> too much, in the past, effort to keep the code backward compatible for
> old applications and old CPUs. The bug count never goes to zero, and
> the pressure to ship has been relentless (I speak as a former Windows
> core programmer).
>
> The development model of Linux and the x-BSDs will ultimately lead to
> far superior user software, as well as the very best server software.
>
> Several governmental bodies around the world have mandated the use of
> open-source user software - the city government of Munich, the state
> or Massachusetts, Mexican school systems, for example. That will start
> swinging the pendulum towards Linux and similar systems.
Yes, many countries have begun using Linux and Germany especially has
made public many of their switches to Open Source.  However, the
operating system market I outlined were businesses and gamers...and
unfortunate as it may well be...Microsoft still creates the best
solution for both.  For gamers...Windows is a one stop shop...simply
because all the latest and greatest games (and keygens...) run on
Windows.  As for businesses who usually prefer proprietary solutions as
opposed to open (and what they consider "flaky") solutions.  Most larger
companies prefer having a company they can call/blame when something
breaks.  With open source solutions, these companies are usually stuck
doing the troubleshooting themselves. 
>
> - Peter Belew
>
>
Thanks for you comments Peter, keep 'em coming!

--Rohan
>
> On 4/29/06, *Rohan Sheth* <rohan at rohan.ws <mailto:rohan at rohan.ws>> wrote:
>
>     Here's a little piece which I have been working on this past
>     week.  I'd
>     love some feedback on changes before I ask an IRC-Buddy to have to
>     posted on SlashDot.
>
>     Thanks!
>     --Rohan
>
>
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>
>
>


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