On Mon, 12 Mar 2007 03:12:43 GMT, "Martha Adams" wrote:
Heh... I never know whether to ignore these threads or try to shine a
new light on them, if I can...
>I think Microsoft Windows won't go away. I see Windows as cleverly made
>to confuse and hide from uninformed users what the vistas of computer
>technology actually are -- I chose that 'vistas' deliberately but in a
>most unfriendly way.
That's an interesting perspective, and may be gaining truth as the
media pimps warp the technological reality field with the black-hole
gravity of their money.
We need Linux to keep MS honest, else Windows may drift off into some
untethered bubble of vendor pipe-dreams a la Nero's inappropriate
musicianship in the midst of a flaming empire.
Windows may be MS's empire, but we (Windows users) are its citizens.
As long as Linux remains unacceptable for general use, MS are free to
do what they want, and one just has to hope they won't want to push
the licensing envelope past the point of unacceptable pain.
As it is, if MS did something nutty, like "Windows will now be
licensed annually, you must swallow all patches, and if you're offline
for a week so we can't touch your OS, your installation wipes itself",
we'd be left without much in the way of lifeboats.
Right now, the choice would be:
- grab bits of Linux wood and build a raft, quickly
- join the rapacious Apple slave ship, and start rowing
It always amuses me to see folks saying "oooo I don't like Microsoft's
monopoly, so I'll go and overpay for an Apple Mac from a tin-pot
monopolist who owns both OS and the hardware".
As Burnt Face Man would say, "I don't see that happening" ;-)
With this opportunity being so open for the last decade or more, why
has Linux so far failed to fill it?
Linux is written on a peer basis, i.e. folks write things they'd find
useful, and gicve it to others to use.
Folks who can write code generally don't find hand-holding GUIs and
wizards useful, so they don't bother to write them. Why should they,
if they don't need them anyway?
Most of the current Windows user base can't code, and do need that
sort of GUI and wizard hand-holding - myself included. Just as a car
that requires you to grip the front axle and tilt it to steer is not a
completed motor product for general use, so an OS that requires you to
memorise and type commands that look like modem noise to do simple
things is not a completed OS product for general use.
So the consumers who use Windows today, are like beggars to the Linux
feast. They have nothing to offer as peers, as they will never
reciprocate by coding something you'd need, so why would you as a part
of the Linux coding community code for their needs?
>Meanwhile, I think much of the material I see in this thread is dogmatic
>and empty: it can't help the movement to Linux.
See my opening sentence.
>"flyer" <flyer@there.net> wrote in message
>> opensource.sucks@yahoo.com says...
>>> On Mar 11, 6:37 pm, flyer <f...@there.net> wrote:
>>> > The Linux avalanche doth wait for no one.
Ah yes, the "thousand year empire" heh heh...
>>> > Hungry Linux develpoers are wedging
>>> > weak windows cracks wider every day.
This may be true, but it's not happening where we, as beleagured
consumers, need it to happen. Yes, the smart peripherals we buy are
increasingly using "Linux inside", and Linux makes it practical to
develop stand-alone sub-PC devices.
But it's not doing much on the consumer desktop.
In terms of the subject line, a better strategy would be:
- 1st; app migration (to apps available to both Linux and Windows)
- 2nd; OS migration (to run these now-familiar apps)
They built it (Linux) and they didn't come (consumers), so I think an
OS-first strategy is ingerently doomed. Time to find a softer wall to
bang your head against, and that's the apps.
>>> You are out of your mind if you believe one word you wrote.
>>>
>>> Is this the year of Linux?
>>> I thought last year was the year of Linux?
>>> Or was it the year before that?
Agreed. There's no surer way to sink an enterprise than to believe
your own spin... and that's one of MS's biggest risks. I don't see
signs of that happening precipitously as yet, but the risk is so large
(in terms of impact, rather than probability) that it must be hedged.
(flamage snipped)
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