As a newbie/Linux novice I can agree with the point about not wanting to deal with "broken apps and half baked stuff". I already have a degree in health care and really don't relish returning to school to learn how to setup and run my OS. I chose Linux because a) It gets me away from M$ (don't get me started on XP/.NET/Hailstorm) and b) because I learn something about the thing I spend most of my time with-the computer. Sure, I would like to learn programming. But I don't want to do so to make it my profession. It's just like medicine. You teach your patient about health care and taking care of themselves. However, you don't expect then to mix there own IV solutions or run their own X-ray machine. It's similar with designing an OS that is to be used by the general public. Open Source is wonderful because the makers can design a system to meet their desires. But, if you want the general public to get behind it and support/use it you'll have to make function on their level. Linux is getting close to this and still gets its geek underpinnigs (geek is not to be taken as derogatory). It will become widely accepted when the common user doesn't have to consider taking night classes in comp sci in order to set up a firewall. On Sunday 13 May 2001 02:28, Jonathan Drews wrote:
Hi Yuri:
On Sun, 13 May 2001, you wrote:
I use MacSSH to manage my OpenBSD firewall only because I don't want to leave my quality desktop for that ugly beta stuff., besides, there is no such thing as quality e-mail client on any linux/unix. The Bat!, Callypso on NT, Eudora and YA/MT Newswatcher on a Mac. When 30 year old Unix will get anything at least distantly comparable, i'll look at it as a desktop. To call KMail a client even more so - a quality client is a propaganda stretch.
You make some very valuable points here. Too many folks react to criticism as though it were flame bait.
Linux commercially will succeed only if a class of self-propagating service professionals is created, like those MSFT drones who don't know how to use text in e-mail yet have MCSE after their names. And it's not possible without real Sugar Daddy like IBM or HP. The latter just announced that they pick Debian. btw. Smart move. Grass roots alone are not enough.
There is some truth to that. However I would not be too sanguine about SuSE's prospects. Nor the ability of KDE or GNOME to galvanize a competitive desktop. I would not be too harsh on Kmail. The chief problem is that software is appraised by computer profesionals. When actually most desktop users want speed, stability and simplicity. IMAP is for computer professionals; your average secretary, or office worker, thinks a port is a place where ships dock. There is an unfortunate tendency to over do things in software. You need to look at computers from the vantage point of a shipping dock worker on Friday. It's a hot day, he doesn't want to do overtime. He wants to enter his bills of lading into the computer, get a beer and go home to his family. If Linux expidites that kind of drudgery, then it is a success. After all that is the real purpose of getting GUI's in UNIX. To allow the unwashed masses to enjoy the benefits of multitasking and stabiity.
I need to grab a thing , drag it, drop and flip it over ... and be done with it. I don't have time for dissertations in man format on how to do simple things.
Preach it brother.
but if SuSE is packing tons of non-functional shovelware like RealPlayer 5, Lilo circa XX century and waistes resources on ReiserFS just to have something made in non-Amerika that's their problem.
Happily, Real Player is gone. However you make a *really* valid point about the inclusion of decrepit software. Most newbies just won't put up with it. Broken apps and half baked stuff are a form of negative advertising. I would not be too quick to shoot down Reiser. It does indeed speed up the computers operation. I have used it in Mandrake, but not in SuSE.
I am
not going to give them any money. the manual is nice though. may be they should become involved with publishing business instead? Nobody in the industry made ANY money on customer service, nobody even MSFT itself.
This is very true.
Cheers,
Jonathan