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Happy 15th Birthday Linux
An anonymous reader writes "It's 15 years already! On August 25th, 1991 Linus Torvalds submitted the famous message to comp.os.minix: 'Hello everybody out there using minix — I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and
professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing
since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on
things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat
(same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons)
among other things)' Happy Birthday Linux!"
10 years of annoucing minor point Linux Kernel releases, and then Linux's 15th birthday doesn't even make it to the front page.
Arguing by example is stupid.
For every example you can throw out about Linux/Mac/Windows/etc being better, someone else can throw out a counter example thats every bit as valid.
Use whats best for you, and drop the fanatical fanboyism. Windows/Linux/Mac/PS3/360/Wii/whatever -- whats best for YOU isn't going to be best for EVERYONE and claiming it is just makes you look petty.
I think that day will come when you can get a consumer PC from a major manufacturer pre-installed with a Linux distro. That will take care of a lot of the hardware issues, and might cause more 3rd party manufacturers to list Linux compatibility. The problem isn't the amount of hardware that's compatible with Linux, it's determining if "Widget X" is going to work or not. Mac users probably have a similar or less amount of compatible hardware, but it's not a problem because you can go into most stores and immediately tell which stuff is going to work with your Mac or not.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
FWIW, it was Slackware, and whatever the latest version was in about 98. I await the "well try a n00b distro like Ubuntu" - well, sorry, I can't be bothered any more. I use Ubuntu a bit at work, and it's very nice, but at home I'm passed caring because XP does the job for me. Back in 98 I found it fun to use my computer pretty much for the sake of using my computer, which is why I wanted to try Linux, but now I just want to use some apps and get things done, and Windows suits me just fine in that regard.
Anyway you're (all) missing my point, which wasn't to bash Linux exactly, but just to that this "OMG ROFL Winblowz Sux0rz!" attitude is really not +5 funny because it's quite obviously wrong. You guys saw 98 bluescreen seven years ago. That's great. But I failed to get X to load seven years ago. Now, when I come along and offer that silly (and admittedly completely trivial one-data-point) anecdote, you're falling over yourselves to dismiss it. (With cheap personal attacks on my level of computer competence no less. No, I'm not "learning the computer", I've been programming since I was 6.) But when you come along and harp on the same old judgements based on 7 year old Windows, it's +5 moderation all the way.
That was my essential point. Not a "this OS is better than yours" thing - just saying ungrounded MS-bashing as a quick route to popularity around here is pretty lame.
Like you say - both Windows and Linux are decent OSes these days. Why is that? Because both have come a long way since 1998, or, to get back to where we started - since 1991.
Basically, there are things to justifiably bash MS for. Biggest on my horizon is the creeping DRM, which may well be the factor that does eventually persuade me to bother switching to Linux. So, focus on those genuine issues, and you might persuade people. But come out with nonsense, like suggesting Windows has made no improvement between v3.0 and XP, and it just undermines your credibility.
As I said before. Microsoft makes good software. Linux is good software. They are both tools, and should be treated as such. It just happens that when you insult a tool made by a lot of the ones using it, you end up insulting a lot of people, and will get a lot of hot headed responses. I apologize on behalf of all geeks who would have genuinely helped you had you seeked help in the appropriate channels. But you insult Linux because you were not familiar with it, not because of any short comings of the operating system itself. Which is not itself a failing of Linux.
Occam's razor is the blind faith in the natural selection of least resistance and in universal oversimplification. -- EF
"Actually, I did try, thank you very much: I spent about a week on it IIRC. I also asked for help on the interwebs, although I didn't get anything more helpful than "RTFM n00b" type remarks."
This is definitely an area where general linux has improved considerably since '98. It's rare to see 'RTFM N00b' on a forum/mailing list nowadays.