I guess the reason for my initial comments were that I was thinking about
the recent experience of a friend of my son's who was interested in
Linux. I
recommended Mandrake 9.2 because I found the installation to be quite
painless. He had trouble downloading the ISO images and making a CD set
that
would install, and so went out and spent $100 on a shrink-wrapped distro,
I
he had trouble burning iso's so........ who's fault is this?
On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 08:32:00 -0700 "Phil Mattison" <
mattison20@cox.net>
writes:
> >From what you have written, I get the clear feeling that these are
> your
> positions:
> >
> >1. Linux kernel & shell are a-ok, no problems.
> >2. X based desktop environments (kde/gnome/etc) too slow, buggy,
> crappy.
> >3. Free alternatives to commercial products are not good.
> >4. Commercial motivation = good products.
>
> Close, but I would say:
>
> 1. Linux kernel & shell are a-ok, no problems.
> 2. X based desktop environments (kde/gnome/etc) [tend to be] too
> slow,
> buggy, crappy.
> 3. Free alternatives to commercial products tend to be slow, buggy,
> crappy.
> 4. Commercial motivation does not necessarily result in good
> products, but
> of necessity tends to place more emphasis on identifying and meeting
> the
> needs of a specific market. Open source projects seem often to be
> done by
> hobbyists who then want the satisfaction of seeing other people
> benefit from
> their work. There is nothing wrong with that but it does not foster
> the same
> level of discipline you find in most commercial projects. The GPL
> can be
> both a blessing and a curse.
>
> Does that mean I never use free software? Certainly not. Far be it
> from me
> to make "perfect" the enemy of "good enough." But neither will I
> fool myself
> into believing that GPL is good and commercial software is evil,
> even if I
> do think it is usually overpriced.
>
> I guess the reason for my initial comments were that I was thinking
> about
> the recent experience of a friend of my son's who was interested in
> Linux. I
> recommended Mandrake 9.2 because I found the installation to be
> quite
> painless. He had trouble downloading the ISO images and making a CD
> set that
> would install, and so went out and spent $100 on a shrink-wrapped
> distro, I
> think it was SUSE. He couldn't get that to install either. I
> recommended
> going to one of the install-fests but I don't think he wanted to
> wait that
> long. After this experience he probably is now an avowed critic of
> Linux.
>
> To those who wish to make Linux into a religious crusade I would say
> the
> reward isn't necessarily worth the effort. If you were offering
> eternal life
> that might be another matter. But to go around spitting on people
> who don't
> happen to support your agenda makes me wonder if you wear a towel on
> your
> head.
>
> --Phil M.
>
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