I can create and use my own Debian repository with little more than a text editor.
THAT is what an open tool set allows for.
I don't have to be a Fortune 500 company. I don't have to be a University. I don't have to be a developer. I don't have to have a PhD. I don't have to own another computer dedicated to the walled garden.
Thus the "power users helping the rest of us" thing that you can have in the Ubuntu community that doesn't and really can't exist in Apple's payola nirvana.
Some of us have being building our own PCs or leaving it to bespoke builders since the 90s and even earlier.
For a conventional desktop PC, a brand name on the case is nothing more than Linus and his security blanket. I can replicate a Dell or a Mac at Newegg, Frys, or even Amazon.
I bought my first $300 PC in 1988 and it was an Atari. It used pretty much nothing in common with an IBM clone. It used a much more expensive CPU than what typically came with IBM clones. Yet it was cheaper and better than any clone I could get at the time.
We already have dirt cheap general purpose ARM devices.
The idea that we need kludge clones for cheap computing is just a Lemming fantasy concocted to pretend that the rest of us are beholden to Microsoft even if we aren't Microsoft users.
A tablet can displace a PC as a media consumption and web browsing device. There are a lot of compromises but most consumers don't have enough taste to care. They're probably also much more passive consumers than active participants.
Slashdot is fine on a tablet only until you want to respond to something.
Other things have their nuances but most consumers likely don't care or have no awareness at all.
This is why Apple is throwing lawsuits at Samsung. They've seen the writing on the wall and realize that they can't live off of camp followers and platform partisans.
apt-get is what you get when you jailbreak an iDevice.
There's the form factor and the basic input/output methods and there's the raw computational power of devices. The relative weakness of ARM based devices is why you've got products like AirVideo or Plex that handle decoding tasks that ARM devices are incapable of.
PCs are no longer shiny and new. PCs aren't so immature that they need a major OS upgrade or a major hardware upgrade every year or every 3 years. They're a mature product.
You can use a 5 year old Compaq as an HTPC. You can use a $300 low profile bargain PC for everything but heavy gaming.
The market is saturated.
Fully amortized and discarded office PCs are more than adequate for the needs of most home users.
...minus the all of the freedom and flexibility that a Linux package manager enables.
Can't install 3rd party packages. Can't install 3rd party non-packages. 3rd parties can't integrate with the package manager directly. Developers and power users can't provide their own bleeding edge repositories.
I understand all of the hate piled on Compaq but mine just keeps on chugging and chugging along. It's chugged along so well that I displaced a Mac Mini with it.
There's something to be said for a butt ugly machine that can be upgraded.
Compared to other systems of "truth", Science does indeed change it's mind frequently and frivolously. That's not a bad thing. It's nothing to fear. It's also not something to gloss over just because half of the population is going to get a panic attack over it.
You can't participate in the discussion unless you do the reading.
The Socratic Method actually requires a good bit of that "lowly rote learning" that people like to be so dismissive of around here. It's a necessary prerequisite so that you know what everyone is talking about.
It's not glamorous but you can't skip lifting your head, rolling over, learning how to crawl and then how to walk.
> Pfft. Real professionals consider all POSIX compliant OSs.
Real professionals think that POSIX compliance is a joke that really doesn't say much of anything and certainly is not enough to know whether or not your expecations from one OS can transfer to the next one.
Linux is just one of many brand of knives that follow the same basic design. Fixating on Linux in particular seems strange when if anything you are really a UNIX professional rather than just a Linux professional.
Yeah. Sometimes you just want a phone that "just works".
When I bought an Apple smart phone, what I actually got was something that I had to hack before it operated like my previous Nokia feature phones. I had to jailbreak it and write a shell script and mess around with an sqlite database.
A phone that "just works" is a pleasant enough idea assuming that the relevant hardware vendor does their slieght of hand well enough.
Anything that is supposed to "run programs" is by definition NOT an appliance. So any anti-geek screed is pretty irrelevant at that point.
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You laugh but I could build a workstation PC with Thunderbolt.
That doesn't appear to be coming to the Mac Pro line any time soon.
Number 2 is why I build all of my serious machines from scratch.
More SATA ports.
More drive bays.
Hot swap trays.
Very convenient for repairs, upgrades, or just moving large amounts of data around.
I always thought that Apple should have came out with a standard for this but they never did.
> The problem is that comparatively few people do "real work."
Everyone that's employed does "real work".
That still plenty of market opportunities for companies that sell PCs.
I can create and use my own Debian repository with little more than a text editor.
THAT is what an open tool set allows for.
I don't have to be a Fortune 500 company. I don't have to be a University. I don't have to be a developer. I don't have to have a PhD. I don't have to own another computer dedicated to the walled garden.
Thus the "power users helping the rest of us" thing that you can have in the Ubuntu community that doesn't and really can't exist in Apple's payola nirvana.
Some of us have being building our own PCs or leaving it to bespoke builders since the 90s and even earlier.
For a conventional desktop PC, a brand name on the case is nothing more than Linus and his security blanket. I can replicate a Dell or a Mac at Newegg, Frys, or even Amazon.
Nope. Apple is still Lincoln. Same parts as Dell.
If you want to pretend to be like a BMW owner you will actually have to pay for an BMW and stop being a clueless poser.
What exactly would you expect him to replace it with?
What exactly would he get out of the expenditure?
All you're doing is describing alternate walled gardens or forcing the end user to be a developer.
I don't have to go through all of that nonsense with Linux.
Apparently this "usability" concept is lost on you.
What you are describing is more like the Linux equivalent of building from source without the aid of a package manager to resolve dependencies.
That post was nonsense.
I bought my first $300 PC in 1988 and it was an Atari. It used pretty much nothing in common with an IBM clone. It used a much more expensive CPU than what typically came with IBM clones. Yet it was cheaper and better than any clone I could get at the time.
We already have dirt cheap general purpose ARM devices.
The idea that we need kludge clones for cheap computing is just a Lemming fantasy concocted to pretend that the rest of us are beholden to Microsoft even if we aren't Microsoft users.
That's not entirely true.
A tablet can displace a PC as a media consumption and web browsing device. There are a lot of compromises but most consumers don't have enough taste to care. They're probably also much more passive consumers than active participants.
Slashdot is fine on a tablet only until you want to respond to something.
Other things have their nuances but most consumers likely don't care or have no awareness at all.
Nope. Most people are buying Android.
This is why Apple is throwing lawsuits at Samsung. They've seen the writing on the wall and realize that they can't live off of camp followers and platform partisans.
apt-get is what you get when you jailbreak an iDevice.
Quite. There are two issues here.
There's the form factor and the basic input/output methods and there's the raw computational power of devices. The relative weakness of ARM based devices is why you've got products like AirVideo or Plex that handle decoding tasks that ARM devices are incapable of.
PCs are no longer shiny and new. PCs aren't so immature that they need a major OS upgrade or a major hardware upgrade every year or every 3 years. They're a mature product.
You can use a 5 year old Compaq as an HTPC. You can use a $300 low profile bargain PC for everything but heavy gaming.
The market is saturated.
Fully amortized and discarded office PCs are more than adequate for the needs of most home users.
...minus the all of the freedom and flexibility that a Linux package manager enables.
Can't install 3rd party packages.
Can't install 3rd party non-packages.
3rd parties can't integrate with the package manager directly. Developers and power users can't provide their own bleeding edge repositories.
I understand all of the hate piled on Compaq but mine just keeps on chugging and chugging along. It's chugged along so well that I displaced a Mac Mini with it.
There's something to be said for a butt ugly machine that can be upgraded.
Not quite.
It's more like Dell is a Ford and a Macs are just Lincoln or Mercury.
Same parts inside. Different exterior.
If Dell or HP even survive it will be based on their Unix offerings.
For Dell, this means Linux.
Fascism is just Communism implemented where the industrial revolution has already occurred.
> If you don't want the government to interfere with your life then why would anyone vote for more government?
The British East India Company is running amok.
Compared to other systems of "truth", Science does indeed change it's mind frequently and frivolously. That's not a bad thing. It's nothing to fear. It's also not something to gloss over just because half of the population is going to get a panic attack over it.
You can't participate in the discussion unless you do the reading.
The Socratic Method actually requires a good bit of that "lowly rote learning" that people like to be so dismissive of around here. It's a necessary prerequisite so that you know what everyone is talking about.
It's not glamorous but you can't skip lifting your head, rolling over, learning how to crawl and then how to walk.
> Pfft. Real professionals consider all POSIX compliant OSs.
Real professionals think that POSIX compliance is a joke that really doesn't say much of anything and certainly is not enough to know whether or not your expecations from one OS can transfer to the next one.
Linux is just one of many brand of knives that follow the same basic design. Fixating on Linux in particular seems strange when if anything you are really a UNIX professional rather than just a Linux professional.
Yeah. Sometimes you just want a phone that "just works".
When I bought an Apple smart phone, what I actually got was something that I had to hack before it operated like my previous Nokia feature phones. I had to jailbreak it and write a shell script and mess around with an sqlite database.
A phone that "just works" is a pleasant enough idea assuming that the relevant hardware vendor does their slieght of hand well enough.
Anything that is supposed to "run programs" is by definition NOT an appliance. So any anti-geek screed is pretty irrelevant at that point.
People are buying phones. They aren't buying computers.
So your anti-geek screed is pretty meaningless.
The fact that it is a computer pretending to be a phone is no more meaningful than a 68030 being embedded in your microwave.