Re: [TCLUG:17072] Thoughts about 'scary stuff'

[Chris McKinley <lamfada@lugh.net>]

On Tue, 2 May 2000, Bob Nolte wrote:

> Sometimes this group sounds like a bunch of religious bigots!

Guilty! I belong to the religion of Freedom!

You will have to pry the GPL from my cold, dead fingers!

>      People ranting wildly about anything that MS does
>      Lots of mail about things that don't work right in Linux

Windows: doesn't work because it is not coded right
	no access to internals, so I can not fix it
	feature missing? pray it is in the next release

Linux: PEBKAC - problem exists between keyboard and chair
	aka, I did not do something right.  And if the feature
	is not there, or not correct, I can complain, but if 
	it is that important, I can code it myself.

> It's been a while since I saw a post by someone who sounded like they
> are enjoying their Linux experience. This group needs to get its
> medication back in balance.

mmm, medication -> 
	Hacking code that doesn't suck
	Finding out how something works
	Changing my window manager every two weeks
	Easy installation (way easier than WinXXX)

Seriously, I enjoy Linux, UNIX, GNU, BSD, etc., quite a bit.  But 
saying how much I like it is redundant, like saying how much I love
sex. 
 
> I would wager that I could load up a box with Windows 2000 and keep
> it running just about forever. Notice that I didn't say that I would load
> any application software on it. AOL is being sued for $8 billion for messing
> up a large number of the world's computers. Just wait until Linux grows
> popular enough to attract crappy application software and the up time
> on Linux boxen will drop dramatically. A few weeks ago someone said
> they liked the gui Corel Linux load. If we want to attract new Linux users,
> we're going to have to appeal to what they're used to seeing. Here comes
> the bloat in Linux. You can't walk into a computer store and pick up a
> $10 Linux program out of the bargain bin. Just wait till this crud hits
> the Linux OS.

Yeah, that might be a problem, BUT:
	Cheap ass Un*x proggies will have a hard time crashing the box.

On windows, a $10K program will crash the box - either because it or 
Windows is buggy.  

And it is not that it is impossible in UN*X.  It is just so much harder to
bring a box down.
 
> I could compare operating systems to kids in a family. You can love
> each of them for their good points. Nothing is gained, and much is lost, by
> concentrating on negative points. Ranting about MS while praising Linux
> isn't going to get us where we want to go in terms of broader acceptance
> by the general public. I've watched MS since its birth and am not paranoid
> about MS at all. I sometime wonder if MS could organize a 1 car parade.

Well, I would hate to be the M$ kid in my family ;) Seriously, though,
I do not disagree that M$ might have some good points, but the lack of
freedom is a big problem for me.  I try to be carefull about the ways in
which I limit my freedom, and even though Linux limits my freedom by not
having all the froofroo, toys and flash, that WinXXX has, it affirms the
basic rights and priveleges which I as a software user should expect.

What frightens me is people who have not read any of the GNU documentation
who dismiss RMS as a kook who wants to `take away our rights'.  RMS is
consistently talking about protecting the rights of the users of 
software, a category of people who are consistently subjected to tactics
that would make any police state proud.  I can take apart my car, fridge,
or any other object that I own, modify it, and resell it, and if it is 
broken I am _allowed_ to fix it.  I can fix other people's cars, etc.
But all I can do with proprietary software is notify the company and 
pray.  I can, of course make a lot of noise on Usenet or mailing lists,
but as Bugtraq & M$ show, this is not enough.  With Linux, I can do it
myself, or find someone who can.

In short, with Linux, and to a lesser extent, the BSDs, I am empowered
and I like it.

> One final point. The level of technical knowledge of MS products seems
> to be very low in this group. This may be due, in part, to the tendency
> of Linux users to break out in hives when brought in close proximity
> to a MS operating system. I would guess that quite a number of the
> 4700 members of this group have noticed this knowledge deficit as well.
> I have run Linux for almost 3 years. I have run Windows since version 0
> and know more about Windows than I do about Linux. I don't have a great
> deal of trouble with MS products because I manage them correctly and
> carefully. An experienced Linux guru probably could say the same thing
> and have little trouble with Linux. Most of the people in the world aren't
> experts with either OS and just want something that will do its job and
> not aggravate them too much.

M$ fails miserably by this criterion.  And I had some windows knowledge, 
although I have forgotten most of it.  It isn't my hives that keeps me
away from M$ products, it is the Hive in Redmond.  You can not pay me
enough to manage M$ products or program for them.  By the same token,
many UN*Xs are also pretty stinky.  So, it isn't Linx vs. Windows, rather 
it is Freedom vs. Restriction.

-Chris McKinley