Linux Needs Critics

An anonymous reader writes "Keir Thomas berates the fact that the world of Linux almost entirely lacks critics. In fact, he says, Linux people tend to see genuine critical evaluation as a bad thing. FTA: 'The problem with this anti-criticism approach is that it's damning Linux to an eternity of navel gazing. Nothing can ever get any better. The best hope we have are the instances where a few bright sparks, with their heads screwed on the right way, get together and make something cool (as happened with, say, Firefox back in the day). But that's rare and can't be relied upon.'"

Comments

Here, have some criticism

[Em Emalb]

Linux FAILS on the desktop except in specific cases where a user has it installed by someone technically proficient or is technically proficient themselves.

Commercial apps for linux are few and far between.

Games on linux (that are available for Windows and OSX) basically suck and are usually bad clones of games that are awesome on other OSes.

The average user doesn't even know what the hell linux is.

(LOL, they kept the achievements?)

There. There's your bashing. I love linux in the server environment though.

Re:I criticized Linux....

[Ynot_82]

No, I tell a lie.
I have nothing but the most rudimentary knowledge of anything kernel level
Any criticisms I have don't mean squat, and I should probably leave it up to people on the lkml to discuss properly

(which one you going to mod up now?)

Re:Let me be the first critic

[Ethanol-fueled]

I'd call it "mommy" issues instead.

The Linux nerd is totally attarcted and devoted to the only woman who has ever shown affection to the nerd, who has let the nerd do whatever he wants.

The nerd irrationally loses sexual interest in all other women beacause his mother has given him the freedom which no other women would allow, all the while ignoring her multitudinous flaws including not being able to just work.

The nerd tries impotently to embrace other "women" but only feels interested in those who are most like "mommy". That's what happens when geeks with too much free time are enabled with too much freedom and complexity at such a young age.

Much later in life, after the nerd succeeds in having a good job and a big house, he secretly pays hookers to cradle him like a baby and allow him to suckle their breasts, and even change his dirty diapers. Now that's progress!

The Religion of Herding Cats

[ChaoticCoyote]

Two problems arise when criticizing Linux:

1. Linux is a religion. Many people use it not because they have a good technical reason, but because Linux isn't Windows (or even OS X). Criticizing Linux is like pointing out logical flaws in traditional religion -- the response is often anger, and therefore counter-productive. Zealotry leads to tunnel vision.
2. "Linux" is a false concept. Linux is an operating system kernel, and largely invisible when using one of the distributions built upon it. Ubuntu, Gentoo, Red Hat, SuSE, Debian, what-have-you -- difference is good for evolution, but lousy for stability and engineering. Who keeps track of the "Linux" bug and suggestion database? Somehow, we need to foster enlightened self-interest among thousands of contributors, hundreds of projects, and dozens of distributions, all of whom have their own itches to scratch.

Thus, I doubt sincerely that constructive criticism will ever be useful or welcome in the religion of herding cats.

Re:Let me be the first critic

[Pembo]

wow! a few weeks later. Thats all I have to wait to use a printer that I bought. Then weeks later when it now costs half price, I can use it. No longer will I be burdened with having to hook up and use my printers the same day that I buy them. I wonder how long to setup a network printer....

Re:Let me be the first critic

[Alex Belits]

When working in the confines of my home, I happen to be a FreeBSD user

No, you are not.

Re:Let me be the first critic

[Alex Belits]

If you not only had to use Windows for "practical" reasons, and especially if you felt compelled to post that diatribe, it means that you never had any kind of motivation to seriously use *BSD. If you are not outright liar you are a poser, what is hardly an improvement.

Re:Nope, it's the putative new users problem

[synthespian]

You guys keep discussing drivers, as if it were the only problem with Linux. But Linux has many issues.

For instance, within a "short time" (2 or 3 KDE GNOME releases, that is, around 1 1/2 year), bloat will render your machine useless.

On the other side of the fence, Joe Sixpack still has Windows XP because it just works. A Vista or Mac OS user will also have a longer lifetime and he/she won't have to jump through all the hoops just to get the damn thing updated.

Updates, for instance: even on a modern distro, updates just break, because most C/Linux developers have no theory about what to do - except keep doing what they do, which is making it up as they go along (contrast: OpenSuSE SAT solver for packages).

On GUIs: GNOME, for example, has conducted one usability study in more than 10 years (!) (that I know of). Spinning cubes do not make a smart solution or improvement on GUIs - it's eye candy

Another example: the UNIX help system. Will it ever use AI?

Linux and BSD are open but they benefit very little from experimentation and smart choices - exception made to OS systems programming - and this is a field very removed from the normal user.

Re:Let me be the first critic

[Braino420]

Sorry. Did I not suck enough ass before I told you how the real world works, rather than fairytale land?

Yes, please go suck more ass (wtf?).

Ya, that's it, you go and show everyone by not using Linux... Oh noes, please we needs you! We need the bitching about impossible problems. Config files? Are you fucking kidding?

And this is why the real world, and collective individuals like myself, despite trying to be accommodating when you shit-spewing retard monkeys say that your OS is "better", despite offering up a real critique in good faith about what it'll take to get more than a handful of social rejects using Linux, will eventually turn to shit-spewing retard monkeys like you and say SHUT THE FUCK UP because you weren't even paying attention to what we said before you went off on your standard boilerplate diatribe.

Entertaining! Read the news, entire countries are using Linux not to mention huge enterprises throughout the world. Oh noes! Don't call me a shit-spewing retard monkey, guy on the internet! pleease! You still don't get it, your critique is fucking impossible, and it amounts to nothing but bitching, and bitching at the wrong people no less. Man, this is really helpful. I'm going to talk to my boss tomorrow and see if he can hire a guy like you to sit on the sidelines and bitch bitch bitch. If he says we want insightful critiques, I'll tell him, "we're living in the real world bro, there's only crybabies der der der". Oh no, the barrier to entry involves me spending $20 on hardware that works!

I also think it's "double funny" (another wtf?), that you are stereotyping EVERY linux user because you couldn't get your POS capture card to work. Seriously man, I'll send you the tens of dollars to get working hardware. Wait, nevermind, I think it would be hilarious if you stick to your commitment of never using Linux again. Good luck, hope you enjoy Windows 7 (that costs more than it would to get a video capture card)! Oh you're gonna stick with XP, even funnier! We're livin in the REAL WORLD bro! lol...

Re:Let me be the first critic

[Daengbo]

In Amazon's top 25 netbooks, only #19 runs Linux. Linux lost the netbook war. It's true. What's not true is that it failed because of developers. It failed because of lazy OEMs and the network effect.