[plug] Easy Installation: Linux Desktop Market

[Mr Shayne]

Its pretty bad advice to encourage folks to break packaging bro. 
Definately not ban worthy, but perhaps something worth being called out 
on.

--
Freedom's just another word for something new to regulate

On Wed, 26 Oct 2005, John Knight wrote:

> I think this argument is a little biased. It makes the Linux method sound 
> like.... sainthood or something, without pointing out the flaws. Something 
> that annoys me as a Linux writer is how other other writers paint rosy 
> pictures *only* of Linux, and suggest that the Linux method is flawless. As 
> much as I like many things in Linux, there certainly are methods that get up 
> my goat. ;) I just find some of our endless bouts of defending the Linux holy 
> land as pointless, when all I have to do is show my windoze using mates how 
> Linux software is installed and they take an instant dislike to it.
>
> Does this make them automatically stupid? Like the rest of the world? Or is 
> there perhaps something wrong with us? Do we have to change our way of 
> thinking as a community? It's not that things are unfeasible, it's that we're 
> not accommodating. Whenever something like .autopackage or some other 'wild' 
> thing comes along, people turn instant prejudice against it. The point of 
> these ideas isn't to replace what is already in place, but to add to it. If 
> you don't wanna use it, fine..... but why feel threatened and shout it down? 
> why not try something new? It's just so ironic that a community based around 
> choice and freedom can be so amazingly stubborn.
>
> As an example, an autopackage dev was on a ubuntu irc channel. He got 
> permanently banned, and he didn't say anythig inflammatory. All he said was 
> how cool it is that he got a new gaim .package working on his ubuntu system 
> which wasn't in the respository. The reason for his banning?
>
> quote:
> the official reason: I was encouraging noobs to blow their computers up with 
> autopackage by saying it gaim 1.5.0 autopackage caused no problems on my 
> installation of hoary. LOL I did not curse nor was I rude... I just said it 
> worked great for me..
>
> 'nuff said? why do we have to be such nerds? Why can't we just respect 
> choice, and allow for different methods? Why would a new user be interested 
> in idiotic debian-slackware-rpm wars? Why do we have to attach an instant 
> stigma to a method from another OS? Have we ever taken the time to think that 
> there are good aspects about other OSes, and as an OSS community, we have the 
> freedom to take advantage of these methods if we like?
>
> "...it was brilliant, there was three up against a thousand, and boy, did we 
> give those three heaps!"
>
>
>
>> 
>> Leon Brooks (leon at cyberknights.com.au) wrote:
>> 
>> > The Windows way is to bundle every single dependency into the installer
>> > program, which bloats them and leads directly to a multitude of
>> > semi-compatible copies of the same thing floating around the machine,
>> > with results you may well imagine (or observe, if you're not so
>> > fortunate).
>> >
>> 
>> Just so you know, when I explained the concept of libraries to my noob 
>> father
>> he almost immediately said soemthing like this, but more from a perspective 
>> of
>> 'I guess windows apps dont share many libraries because one company doesnt
>> want to support another'. Its quite an eye opener to realise this - for 
>> most
>> intents and purposes DLLs are completely useless in windows environment,
>> beyond the system DLLs. You might as well statically compile your app.
>> 
>> He also said to me last night 'Windows is like buying a car and being told 
>> to
>> shutup and drive. Linux is like buying a car and having the salesman hand 
>> you
>> a full workshop manual'. Being technically minded, he prefers the latter :)
>> Quite amazing to watch him take a few simple concepts and come up with 
>> ideas
>> about 'how it should work', which more often than not are similar to the 
>> way
>> it actually works. Last night he asked me how linux knows the difference
>> between a file its allowed to execute (or as he put it 'convert from the HD 
>> to
>> machine code'), and a data file like a document or something. He proposed
>> there must be some distinguishing factor beyond the executable bits. I 
>> showed
>> him 'file', and explained ELF to him. I imagine he's at home trying 'file' 
>> on
>> lots of different files right now :)
>> 
>> --
>> =================
>> Simon Scott
>> simon at chrome64.org
>> mob: 0409113359
>> =================
>> 
>> 
>> 
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>
>
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