On Fri, 24 May 2002 13:44:53 -0700, Michael Hasenstein wrote:
I am really, really tired of all this wasted development energy, sometimes. I guess I just have to acknowledge that while Linux is great for servers and for corporate IT, for the (home) desktop it may never get there, at least not with the current system of how people develop for it. There ARE people out there who just want to achieve some goal using a computer as just a tool.
Now for a really controversial view. I have just decided that while Linux is great for the desktop, I prefer OpenBSD for servers. The development energy that goes into the Linux kernel and into applications for Linux is truly a wonderful thing. Someday, really good things will result from this, as the various projects look over at their competition and borrow their better ideas, covered by open source licenses. It might be ugly now; I say, let it be so, for we really don't lose. Whether that will ever make a dent in the Microsoft Office world is a question I avoid as much as possible. Ultimately, the tools that will be available under Linux will surpass those available for Windows. Even now, I think Abiword and Gnumeric are all I need for "productivity tools." The best hope for the desktop market, surprisingly (or not), rests in Microsoft's greed. I hear an awful lot of griping about the licensing for Windows XP, but from what I can see, Microsoft has no intention of altering its course. Arrogance carries a price. Sooner or later, Microsoft must surely run aground, propelled by its own misbegotten ideals. I see the current Linux development effort as attempting to produce something that is all things to all people. I see a lot of energy going into this, and as I said above, I believe the results will eventually be wonderful. But, in the meantime, I don't see how you do this without lots of extra code -- which to me suggests lots of extra bugs, and lots of extra security problems. Add what I consider a mess in Linux packet filtering (moving in the direction of more, not less, messiness), and I'm switching my servers and routers to OpenBSD. But the plus side of all this is that we're getting ever better desktop applications, better support for odd hardware, and probably a few other things where innovation really counts for more than security. That and the reliability factor, I think, make for a really good desktop system. So it is my desktop and laptop that will remain on Linux. -- David Benfell, LCP benfell@parts-unknown.org --- Resume available at http://www.parts-unknown.org/resume.html