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Dell Opens Up About Desktop Linux
An anonymous reader writes "Michael Dell explains his company's Linux desktop strategy in an interview at DesktopLinux.com. He says that it's not practical for Dell (the company) to support numerous distributions due to their incompatibilities, but that he doesn't want alienate large segements of the Linux community by selecting a favorite Linux distro to standardize on (Ubuntu appears to be his favorite, at the moment, by the way.) What he'd really like to see, is for the popular Linux distros to converge on a common core platform, according to the article."
I've never had dpkg crap out and destroy the database of what's installed. I've never had dpkg lock up and cease functioning.
Being able to ask RPM difficult questions is a nice theoretical feature, but the user interface is so horrible I can't remember how to ask it simple questions; I resort to a cheat sheet with the incantations needed for simple everyday use.
I didn't say RPM lacked features; I said it was crap.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
What's really needed is a UNIX-based operating system developed by a hardware supplier to be easy to use (including configuration and, most importantly, software installation) while still retaining the power of its UNIX underpinnings. This OS would ideally be able to run MS Word and Lotus Notes native. Oh...wait....
And so does Windows! The whole Linux movement is for geeks who want to cut teeth. If common people have so much difficulty using an OS like Windows, I do not foresee how a Linux and all the myriad variants of Linux we have are ever going to be supported well. Worst, even geeks like me can't get it to work beautifully with any laptop. After all the research I do in getting the right laptop. Of course, I could go for Linspire or Lindows laptops, but that is a small outfit which wont stand the test of times. All in all I think Apple has it all going. OS X is built on BSD, a rock solid unix based OS and with Apple we can save ourself the trouble of trying to get things to work. You pay them for doing that job. I want soomething that works...all the time. If I am going to spend all this time trying to get Linux to work on a piece of hardware, how am I going to do the thhings I really want to do with my desktop/laptop. I remember that dialog between Grace and her assistant where Grace says "I want to marry THE ONE" and her assistant replies "Yes! How else are you going to get to the twos and threes!" Same story here...almost!