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Open-Source Software and "The Luxury of Ignorance"
Bootsy Collins writes "Using the recent experience of trying to configure
CUPS
on his home network, Eric Raymond has
written an interesting new screed on poor design of user interfaces in general, and configuration interfaces in particular, in open source software, entitled
The Luxury of Ignorance.
A sample quote: 'This kind of fecklessness is endemic in open-source land. And it's what's keeping Microsoft in business -- because by Goddess, they may write crappy insecure overpriced shoddy software, but on this one issue their half-assed semi-competent best is an order of magnitude better than we usually manage.'"
I can get a white box Intel machine for about $300. The least expensive Mac is about $1200+. Do the math -- it's been this way since at least the P200 days.
About 5 years ago I was deciding to buy my first home PC (after working with them for several years). I was strongly leaning towards a Mac, even though it did cost considerably more. I decided on one that included a DOS card with a 486 that could run my Windows software too. So I said I want that, with a bigger hard disk (I think it came with a 3GB disk, pretty tight for two OSs). The answer was no. I could buy another hard disk and install it myself. So I took my money and had a PC built to order. That arrogance and inflexibility lost them a costomer.
Free software is not perfect, but you have to compare apples to apples here. Any user who can figure out M$ networking can do just as well with free software.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
We still have crap like Kroupware, Kallery, Xouvert, and a GUI system that still requires you to configure mouse buttons and specs through an awful text file (as someone else succinctly put it, it's like answering essay questions).
Microsoft has already moved on and is creating virtual machine run-times and a DirectX hardware-accelerated desktop. Linux is still trying to get a desktop off the ground with "cute" names like KDE and GNOME, each with their own sound servers, their own configuration formats, neither with a proper method of installation/uninstallation (because to Linux users, registries magically = bad because Windows happens to have something called the "registry"), neither with a proper interface (though Gnome is the closest), and neither having the snappy responsiveness OS X and Windows XP have.
I finished compiling KDE 3.2 today on Gentoo, using Pentium 4 optimizations. It still took 4 seconds when I first loaded up my Home directory. Loading My Computer in Windows takes less than a third of a second.
These are all the endless things that need to be fixed, but won't be. Instead, things will be forked, people will obsess over something "M$" did, and meanwhile KDE and GNOME will continue living in their own little worlds making pretty desktops that make for good screenshots on the back of the distro packaging, until you actually grab the mouse and try to use them.
And all that is on 2000 or XP. It get's a lot worse when you have to set them up on 98. Personally, in a Linux only printing environment, CUPS seems to work very nicely. Set it up quickly through the GUI on one computer, and CUPS on your other Linux systems automagically picks it up. Its when you start sharing the printers with Windoze that it becomes a bit of a pain.
I just started using linux myself, and there are a coulple of things that show me it will never take off.
1. It is a pain in the A$$ to install drivers
(it still won't use my sound card)
2. It doens't reconize the stupid whell on my mouse. (nore any of the other extra buttons)
3. It requiers me to figure out how to edit the kernal myself, and doesn't provide any instructions or tips on how to do so.
4. It doesn't notice my Usb storage device without changing some setting that I can't find on my own without a manual.
5. It requiers me to mount all my drives manualy.
6. My XP machine hasn't froze or crashed or anything since I got it. it reconized my mouse properly, it reconized my graphics card, it found my Usb storage device immediatly, It even found my sound card and plays music through it. It even automaticaly mounts all my drives. It works like it's supposed to!
It happens that I just configured a mixed network at my house, a Linux box with a printer, and Linux and Windows machines (98 and XP) talking to it.
I've also debugged Windows printing at the office recently.
I realize that ESR likes to hear himself rant, but I'm sorry, anyone who thinks that configuring printers under Windows is easier than setting up CUPS is severely deluded. After running the nth install program on a Windows machine because the printer manufacturers refused to just distribute the drivers, and after reinstalling the printer for the gazillionth time because Windows horks up printer permissions, and all of those other Windows issues we've just learned to deal with, the "plug it in, make a few obvious selections, and print" of the assorted apps talking to CUPS kicked the whole Windows thing to the curb.
ESR has been slowly sliding into irrelevance and meaningless ranting for a while, this little screed puts him solidly in the Jon Katz camp in my book.
We can get video to work on a mac, it just takes about 6 times the effort. Hunting out which codecs you need, trying to find them, trying to install them. Trying to get QuickTime to not crash when you open it, etc. It's hardly a streamlined process.