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Why Linux Is Not Yet Ready For the Desktop
An anonymous reader writes "Every now and then a new- or old-media journalist tries to explain to everyone why Linux is not yet ready for the desktop. However all those men who graduated from their engineering universities years ago have only superficial knowledge about operating systems and their inner works. An unknown author from Russia has decided to draw up a list of technical reasons and limitations hampering Linux domination on the desktop." Some of the gripes listed here really resonate with me, having just moved to an early version of Ubuntu 9.10 on my main testing-stuff laptop; it's frustrating especially that while many seemingly more esoteric things work perfectly, sound now works only in part, and even that partial success took some fiddling.
I always enjoy these /. stories about Linux acceptance. We are guarenteed a full vetting of why this article is wrong by the Linux-heads and why it is so right by the M$-heads.
It's even numbered for easy reference to the sprcific points
Notice the ".ru" at the end of the domain of the "article". Russia, eh?
I'll tell you what's going on:
The Slashdot gang, desperate for traffic and the subsequent advertising revenue from said traffic, teamed up with the Russian mafia and they're writing these Troll articles. Now, nothing increases viewership like controversy and the biggest controversy among computers nerds is Linux vs. Microsoft and how Linux isn't ready for the desktop.
There you go.
Not this shit again.
LOL Anecdote! My girlfriends computer couldn't uses its sound or graphics card under XP, both worked out of the box with Jaunty. Next anecdote please!
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
You even copied the "No reproduction of any kind is allowed without express permission by the author." This makes me smile for some reason.
Why would one who has windows license use linux? Just to be 'cool'?!
VM's are a long term viable solution for backwards compatibility... Just ask the designers of Windows 7.... :P
I think it would have been funnier (the article) had it just said "Linux sux" and been done with it. It would have been shorter, amounted to the same gibberish from the same author, and would have saved us all a lot of time and we could have spent more time sitting here debating the merits of various operating systems.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
...flapping their wings and squawking like the silly little parrots they are.
Wouldn't they be silly penguins?
Ubuntu 9.10 is great for average users as long they
can run the thing from a root CLI.
to configure screen resolution (default 800x600)
first you get an error message that the default
config tool won't work because of proprietary
drivers. do you want to use the proprietary tool?
yes. proprietary tool fills screen and bottom
(with apply/save buttons) overflows and is inaccessible.
figure a way around this by opening more screens.
apply the new setting. save setting, get error
message about backup file privs.
plug in a USB drive. get message that you don't /media.
have privs to mount it. look for DiskManager tool
that was present on 8.10. not there. synaptic
pachage manager: install MountManager. hides button in
in another menu which you need to configure. find it
and click it. nothing happens. so, CLI in
root mode - library object error message in
MountManager. so, edit fstab and remove offending
lines. correct privs for mount dirs in
reboot. screen res wrong again. back to step one.
eventually, you forget why you were trying to
access the USB drive.
Kevin O'Kane http://www.cs.uni.edu/~okane/
My, that IS insightful.
2001 called, they want their Linux complaints back.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.