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GNOME Foundation Elections - Final Candidate List

Posted by chrisd on from the mc-begat-gnome dept.

Motor writes: "The list of candidates for the forthcoming GNOME foundation election is now available. And yes, RMS is on there..." Note for voters, the email will be sent out the 13th. Please note the Election Rules and Director Overview Good luck to all the candidates!

4 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    But will it solve Linux' cost problem?

    Let's have a close look at the costs involved when running a Linux system.

    An important factor in Linux' cost is its maintenance. Linux requires a *lot* of maintenance, work doable only by the relatively few high-paid Linux administrators that put themselves - of course willingly - at a great place in the market. Linux seems to be needing maintenance continuously, to keep it from breaking down.

    Add to this the cost of loss of data. Linux' native file system, EXT2FS, is known to lose data like a firehose spouts water when the file system isn't unmounted properly. Other unix file systems are much more tolerant towards unexpected crashes. An example is the FreeBSD file system, which with soft updates enabled, performance-wise blows EXT2FS out of the water, and doesn't have the negative drawback of extreme data loss in case of a system breakdown.

    According to Linux advocates, an alternative to EXT2FS would be ReiserFS. Unfortunately, ReiserFS is still in beta stage. This means it is not intended for production use (although according to many Linux advocates this shouldn't be a problem, which makes me wonder how (little) valuable they find your data).

    The other proposed 'solution', EXT3FS, is nothing more than an ugly hack to put journaling into the file system. All the drawbacks of the ancient EXT2FS file system remain in EXT3FS, for the sake of 'forward- and backward compatibility'. This is interesting, considering that the DOS heritage in the Windows 9x/ME series was considered a very bad thing by the Linux community, even though it provided what could be called one of the best examples of compatibility, ever. When it's about Linux, compatibility constraints don't seem to be that much of a problem for Linux advocates.

    Back to Linux' cost. Factor in also the fact that crashes happen much more often on Linux than on other unices. On other unices, crashes usually are caused by external sources like power outages. Crashes in Linux are a regular thing, and nobody seems to know what causes them, internally. Linux advocates try to hide this fact by denying crashes ever happen. Instead, they have frequent "hardware problems".

    The steep learning curve compared to about any other operating system out there is a major factor in Linux' cost. The system is a mix of features from all kinds of unices, but not one of them is implemented right. A Linux user has to live with badly coded tools which have low performance, mangle data seemingly at random and are not in line with their specification. On top of that a lot of them spit out the most childish and unprofessional messages, indicating that they were created by 14-year olds with too much time, no talent and a bad attitude.

    I could go on and on and on, but the conclusion is clear. Linux is not an option for any one who seeks a professional OS with high performance, scalability, stability, adherence to standards, etc.

  2. Heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Everyone knows that all the slashdot losers are going to vote for Miguel or RMS since those are the only two "high profile" nerds on the list.

  3. RMS, Who the Fuck is this Dickhead? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Read this dickhead's summary.

    Goddamn, leave the fucking ego at the door you stupid son-of-a-bitch.

  4. Re:what's with the RMS-bashing? by maxpublic · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Even so, most of the furor is over the fact that RMS insists that Linux be referred to as GNU/Linux, given the fact that a lot of the software in a Linux distro is part of the GNU project this is NOT an unfair suggestion.

    It's not only unfair, it's ludicrous. Linux is the kernel of the operating system and has nothing whatsoever to do with GNU or Stallman. What apps a company bundles with Linux isn't controlled by Linus or any of the Linux developers, and this bundling doesn't entitle Stallman to label a kernel he doesn't own and has never worked on part of his pet GNU project.

    Max

    --
    My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?