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Asa Dotzler on Why Linux Isn't Ready for the Desktop
An anonymous reader writes "Asa Dotzler of The Mozilla Foundation compares the explosive growth of Firefox to the anything but explosive growth of Linux and what it needs to do to get there for the "regular user" AKA mom, dad and grandma Bootsie."
Linux should be focusing on the code.
There's nothing wrong with styling your GUI to look like WinXP, but the code should come first.
There's nothing wrong with having a dual-boot Win/Linux system where FireFox on the Linux system snagged all the IE info during installation. That would be a pretty cool feature. But the code comes first.
Linux is winning the server market because of the stability, reliability and functionality. Not because it looks just like a Windows server. Focus on the code.
Migration tools are good. More migration tools would make it easier to migrate more servers. But the code comes first.
What the fuck is that supposed to mean?!
And if you're going to point out the Jews, you might as well point to the Africans, and Arabs that use it as well. Come to think of it, you also have the Chinese and the Europians, and the Indians as well. Come to think of it, it's the only thing all of the above parties will ever be willing to agree on.
You're an ass, but you do have a point.
This signature has Super Cow Powers
Yet Another Article Claiming Linux Is Not Ready.
So the fuck what.
GJC
Gregory Casamento
## Chief Maintainer for GNUstep
Windows users are telling you what it will take to get us to switch.
Linux guys are telling us why we are wrong...
Take a look back at the posts here, you will see what I mean. You can easily tell who is running what in many cases.
Linux users, get off your high horse and listen to what Windows users are telling you.
Oh, one other thing, when a noob asks a question, stop replying with use the search, odds are they did, and found 5000 posts of people saying use the search or RTFM. You are not helping. Also, instead of giving up on them after the 3rd question, do NOT tell them to just switch to OSX.
You guys make terrible salesmen.
I am tired of you guys telling me how great things are for you. They are not. Your install system is a joke. Your help system is a joke. You have not made any progression towards STANDARDS in years. Does everything on KDE run in Gnome? How about reverse? And why in the hell are you still developing drivers for hardware discontinued 3 years ago!
So which are you in favor of? Making it easier to use, or making it less crash-prone? Or saying fuck it, if you can't learn to drive (compute) then you deserve what you get? You seem to be all over the map. Are you sober? (I'm not, so if I'm misinterpreting you, well, fuck it.)
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
Here come the Microsofties, ready to tell us why Windows rules and Linux sucks. Some are obvious, others try to snow us with 'reasoned' arguments (read: vague bullshit), yet others still gift us with their own anecdotal disaster stories and how their inability to handle a simple install means that Linux *has* to suck. Because they couldn't possibly be as stupid as they appear to be, of course.
I've been using Linux for years, as has my wife. We settled with SuSE because it's even easier to install than Win2000/XP, regardless of what a few brain-dead MS-lovers have to say about it. Since I'm no longer programming and haven't been for some time (and my wife never has) I don't want to dick around with a system - I just want it to work, period. The computer is just a tool to me now and I have no interest whatsoever in doing anything beyond the minimum required to get it to function. SuSE is perfect for this and has never failed me, which is something I can't even come close to saying about Windows (any version).
But here's the real nail in the coffin of the Microsofties: when I taught computers for middle school students 11-year-olds had *absolutely no problem whatsoever* mastering Linux on the desktop. They easily adapted to it, and ended up prefering it to Windows. If my passle of ordinary 11-year-olds can install (yes, they had to install it themselves) and learn to use Linux without a hitch, I have to wonder just how much brain damage these Windows 'power users' must have suffered to make them incapable of accomplishing something any curious pre-pubescent could do.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
1. Linux will continue to move slowly, because Linux is still far too foreign to the average computer user.
2. When I'm out poking through BestBuy (or whatever) and I see a new game, the last thing I want to have to deal with is "will this work on my Linux machine?"
3. Most people using Windows have been doing so since Windows came out (or whatever version was out when they came of keyboard-age). Asking people to drop all those years of familiarity and pick up something totally new, is rather like telling someone they can't speak English anymore (assuming they speak English natively, of course).
4. Hanging out with Linux users is like driving a nail into your forehead...over and over and over again. It's just "Windows sucks, blah blah blah" all freaking day long.
5. If the 'Linux daily experience' was half as good as Linux users touted it to be, Linux would not need to continually need to use slander to prove its point.
6. You don't teach old dogs new tricks. It is a LOT harder to convert habitual Windows users, than it is to convert those who have not spent years using Windows. Why doesn't Linux focus more on getting Linux in classrooms and in front of youngsters? It seems wiser to me to convert them while they're young.
7. 90-percent of the people I've known (from forums or in person) who have switched to Linux, did so because they had a MINOR Windows problem that they believed to be a major Windows problem because it was blown out of proportion by the Linux community.
8. If you told my mother (and most of the rest of the world) that to solve their problem they needed to "patch their kernel and possibly check their driver dependencies" they'd go "huh?" and walk away.
9. "Upgrade Windows, Mom."
"How do I do that?"
"It does it automatically."
"Okay."
10. Mention that you're having a problem in Windows, and you'll get a ton of Linux users spouting anti-Windows propaganda...and little else. (Mention a Linux problem, and the penguin KGB supresses it.)
11. Penguins belong behind windows.