[plug] Linux Enthusiasm - Are we over the top?

[John Knight]

This is a posting that will get replies for days and not really get 
anywhere, but I feel like answering it anyway. ;)

To suggest that we aren't over the top would only be self-comfort, and not 
reality. Like any m$ product, Linux has short comings, lots of them, and to 
suggest that Linux doesn't have them would again be naiive and unrealistic. 
The state of drivers for a heap of hardware is shameful to say the least, 
one can hardly expect the mum down the road to be using Mandrake or 
something, she asks, "how do I get my USB scanner to work" and for her to 
comprehend loading up modules or installing some drivers from source etc.

At present, any old git that has a blank hard disk and a bootable cd-rom 
drive can install SuSE with no worries, just hit next a lot and it'll do the 
work for you. Past htat is a different story, when they go to change a mouse 
to another type (gawd, usb installation!) or heaven forbid, want to install 
a DVD decoder card, it's a long road at times that will always require a 
resident nerd.

Now I'm a STRONG supporter of Linux, it pains me to say any of this but we 
as a community have to acknowledge these flaws, rather than clouding them 
over. To lay blame on supporters in this case seems rather short sited 
though, it's about time we had standardisation across the board. United 
Linux sounds like a step, but certainly not a step in the right direction. 
We need a standard for distros, maybe some sort of sticker on packaging or a 
piccy on the website etc, with a rating of ease of use.

These are my recommendations, again, they're just ideas so don't get too hot 
under the collar! Perhaps there should be an organisation (formed by us 
even!) that rates the distros, with things like SuSE at the beginner level 
and Slackware at the advanced level. Maybe a star rating for dificulty, so 
that people can look at specications on the back and decide of it's for them 
or not (does it use a packaging system? Check. Does it have widget style 
programmes for setting up certain kinds of hardware? Maybe.), and if we're 
to have a GNU Standards Burea (the GSB, I like that!), it should be like 
what the W3C is to HTML.

The reason that I want this in my own head is so that certain standards can 
be deprecated on a whole, provided that distributions agree to 
interact/conform with GSB standards. Surely it's time to hit .rpm in the 
belly and get everyone to migrate to .deb? Surely we should have some kind 
of move put in and tools to help the process along, like what the W3C does 
with old HTML features?

This is just my ranting, but I thought that this may be a possible solution 
to the anarchy and the constant bickering between different distro users. 
Once we have a GSB palce, we can make moves to having installations of 
hardware and software that are across the board, and then it'll be much 
easier to work on (maybe).

anarchist tomato

>
>Has anyone read the Tom's Hardware article regarding AMD?
>
>http://www.tomshardware.com/smoke/02q3/020704/index.html
>
>And it's followup:
>
>http://www.tomshardware.com/smoke/02q3/020715/index.html
>
>It talks about AMD kicking the underdog image and stepping up as a
>serious CPU contender.
>After reading it I joked "I've heard this before..." The feeling
>afterwards was a little offputting...
>
>Do people think Linux will always stay relatively small, because it's
>cooler to be the underdog?
>
>Are we Linux fans coming across too obsessive about what is just another
>operating system?
>
>Craig F.
>
>PS This is *not* a flame troll. It worried me a couple of years ago to
>see some people out and out lie sometimes saying that Linux is the
>be-all and end-all of OS's for home users. It's gotten heaps better (the
>Linux desktops etc AND the truthfulness of the worst part of the crowd),
>but I was wondering what other people thought regarding the image the
>RealWorld(tm) has of Linux and it's fans
><< smime.p7s >>




Make lunch, not war.


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