Re: [SLE] [OT] Dark days ahead for Linux desktop users?
I first read Powell when someone cited his review of SuSE 8.0. While I didn't necessarily disagree with each and every one of his points, I found his analysis to be less than rigorous and his writing style seems to be a conscious imitation of a well-known pundit. In short, Powell is a poor man's John C. Dvorak. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Dvorak. He's fun. He's especially fun to read a few years later, because he's very often way off base. (Check out "John Dvorak Predicts: an Insider's View of the Computer Industry" - it was published 8 years ago, so it's got some real howlers.) The Uber-Linux vs. Mega-Linux "wars" are not knock-down fights, it's not a zero-sum game, and desktop users are the least involved. This is all a bunch of marketroids gathered together in strokey-beardy meetings and publishing encyclicals and other Bulls. It's not like Oracle will suddenly go silent on SuSE or seeing DB2's light extinguished under a RedHat. It's all Linux. Good press, however, demands that any conflict be between two clearly different and preferably opposite forces. They'd prefer to cast the whole thing as a football game: the Rebel Rednecks of RedHat vs. the Neibelung Dwarves of Nuremburg. The Linux wars aren't, and Powell isn't John Dvorak. Bill Sheehan Postmaster 617-373-7927 Keith Winston <kwinston@twmi.r To: suse-linux-e@suse.com r.com> cc: Subject: [SLE] [OT] Dark days ahead for Linux desktop users? 06/07/02 03:44 PM I just read this unsettling article at Linux and Main: http://www.linuxandmain.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=91 It casts the UnitedLinux vs. Unbreakable as a battle of databases with the desktop user caught in the crossfire. Best Regards, Keith -- LPIC-2, MCSE, N+ Got spam? Get spastic http://spastic.sourceforge.net -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com
** Reply to message from "Bill Sheehan" <b.sheehan@neu.edu> on Fri, 7 Jun 2002 16:08:20 -0400 **Good press, however, demands that any conflict be between two clearly **different and preferably opposite forces. They'd prefer to cast the whole **thing as a football game: the Rebel Rednecks of RedHat vs. the Neibelung **Dwarves of Nuremburg. This is true as far as it goes... It's also an idea the "press" has that Linux is so fragmented it will never ever be a viable alternative to windows.. in fact , it would be better if it just disappeared ( Granted not all the media feel this way, but enough do to make certain Linux gets more "bad" press than good ...) effectively slowing down the desktop adoption by fearful business folk.. Convinced it is just too difficult for the "average Joe" to understand , and that it will slowdown "production" in het workplace, it might ever require a rethink from timid corporate types. Let's face it , Linux has always been thought of as soem sort of "semi-religeous mystery" only useable by priests and bishops. And it pleases some to keep it so. We've all seen thissort of quote "I don't want to have my mom use the same OS I do, It just isn't right" Well w/ the current crop of guis, everyone's mum, can use it, especially in a controlled environment , like a business ! **The Linux wars aren't, and Powell isn't John Dvorak. Too True ! j
Hello all, I'd have to weigh in on this side of the dispute. There is actually a rather burning rebuttal of the editorial if you read down into the comments (at http://www.linuxandmain.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=91 see "This article is unresearched and nearly pointless (Score: 1) by adubey on Monday, June 10 @ 11:15:30 EDT") On Fri, 07 Jun 2002 22:48:24 -0400, jfweber@eternal.net wrote:
Let's face it , Linux has always been thought of as soem sort of "semi-religeous mystery" only useable by priests and bishops. And it pleases some to keep it so. We've all seen thissort of quote "I don't want to have my mom use the same OS I do, It just isn't right"
Well w/ the current crop of guis, everyone's mum, can use it, especially in a controlled environment , like a business !
Good point. And I'd argue that especially "everyone's mum" can use it, since they don't need Office compatibility or all the extra "features" (read bloat) that the market droids consider essential. -- David Benfell, LCP benfell@parts-unknown.org --- Resume available at http://www.parts-unknown.org/resume.html
participants (3)
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Bill Sheehan -
David Benfell -
jfweber＠eternal.net