[clue-talk] A Significantly Better Mousetrap, was Re: [clue-tech] Mephis linux

[David L. Willson]

How would you suggest an end-user "lead" other than to openly discuss 
the state of how they feel the software works?

Nate, you're no more an "end user" than I am.  The people we help are end users.  You and I and many, if not most, of the other participants on this list, are technical leaders.  We are responsible, at least partially, for choosing the direction of the industry.  Other people ask us what's to be done, and we tell them.  That is why I get all worked up about things.  I feel, and I believe that I am, personally responsible for the use and buying decisions of those that look to me for technical guidance.

"Drop having six different desktops on Linux, and focus on one good one, 
Developers!"

That would violate one of the principles on which Linux is founded, freedom of choice.  It's not really negotiable.  Fortunately, we already have the benefit that I think you want, within sub-groups of Linux.  I think you want consistency, predicitability, and the higher level of polish that comes with it.  If that's what you think would be bought by having "one good one", I'll ask, "Have you tried Ubuntu, Fedora, or OpenSUSE lately?"  They all compare quite favorably to the competition, Windows and MacOS, in my opinion.  The Ubuntu Developers do exactly what you suggest; they "focus on one good one", and so do all the other devs, they focus on their piece.  If you want to cut off the choices, like KDE, or Fedora, or Mint, or distro-of-the-day, in order to create one predictable Linux that ~everyone~ uses...  You're giving up the very thing that makes Linux good, and the thing that makes it un-killable.  In governmental terms, you're giving up a basic freedom, a fundamental Constitutional thingamabob.  Standards can be found in Linux, but not mandates, and that's a Good Thing.  Nobody is asking you where you want to go today, and then dragging you off to someplace someone else wanted to go.  It would be entirely un-Free for a KDE developer to lose his freedom to choose to develop KDE, or a KDE user to use KDE, in order to get a better GNOME.

[...]I liked Linux better when it was gaining ground.

This from the same keyboard that berated Linux for playing catch-up.  What do you think we were doing back then when we were "gaining ground"?  We caught them, Nate.  We passed them.  It's kinda natural that we now look up and go, "Wow.  We are the lead dog.  No more asses to follow.  Now what?"

It stopped when it hit the brick wall of "Not Having any Real 
Direction(TM)", I think.  That's what I've been discussing...

That's not what I'm hearing you discuss, but let's discuss that.  What direction do you want your Free software to go today?

Where's Linux going?  Anywhere?  The same places it is today?  Is there 
any potential to be really great now that it's successfully copy-catting 
the commercial development world?  Can it do better?

Does Windows or MacOS support all of RAID6, OGG, doc, MP3, MPEG, xls, odf, ods, PDF, JPG, cpp, mov, ext2|3, NTFS, FAT*, DHTML, virtualization, and block-level replication of about everything out of the box?  Linux does.  Do you realize that Linux supports more hardware out of the box, than any other OS, and with much less help from the IHV's?

That's my discussion topics.  I'm not trying to make you mad, I'm just 
looking down the road 10 years and seeing if there's any hope for the 
current Linux development process to produce BETTER software than I can 
get for roughly $100 at any computer store or pre-installed on various 
hardware.

In my humble opinion, Linux ~is~ better than Windows and MacOS already, at the desktop.  If you like something else better, use it.  This is about choice.  For me, it's also about destroying the Microsoft-interoperability-FUD-trap-mentality that I find so many of my friends in.  But mostly, it's about letting you and everyone else, do what you want with your PC, whether you like Windows, or MacOS, or some flavor of Linux, or something else entirely.

> I think, maybe, you're trolling, but I thought that activity was the purvey of those with not enough to do, and somewhere along the way, I got the impression that you were a busy man.  Maybe not so much, I guess.  I have to say that you're not winning my referral business any time soon with an attitude like the one you're showing here.

[...]Linux servers and running them make a difference in my life and even 
made me some money over the years.  Messing with the Linux desktop or 
helping friends with it, hasn't really... not something for other Linux 
fans to be upset about, I don't think.  I know there are a small 
minority on this list that professionally support Linux desktops, but 
most of us here just use it for ourselves.  I guess I'm thinking it's 
something I don't really need to waste any more time on, personally. 
During that process I also had to think about "Why" it's maybe a waste 
of time to me... personally.

Just sharing those thoughts with the Linux pros and fans locally that I 
trust here on the list to see if I'm insane.  Perhaps I am?  Hahah...

I don't know if you're insane or not.  Why do you work?  If you're doing things that are consistent with the reason(s) you work, then you're sane.  If not, you're misaligned.  Insane is such a harsh word.

Let's just say I've always been a packrat and letting go of the Linux 
desktop is mentally difficult, but I haven't been convinced by anyone 
that it's really going to be better than desktops I can buy relatively 
inexpensively, probably forever?

OK, you're insane.  You're emotionally attached to a desktop operating system that you've deemed technically inferior on basis of one of it's fundamental attributes, choicey-ness.  Use something else, Nate.  Use something that only comes in one flavor, if you like, and use Linux for the things you feel that it is best suited for.  Don't force yourself to use it as a desktop, if you don't like the Linux desktop experience, and then come gritching to your Linux-loving friends about what a farce Linux is, and how un-Windowsy and un-Mac-like it is.  Use Linux for what ~you~ love to use it for, and build value into that, since you'll believe in that, and what you believe in, you'll contribute to.