As I have said before, and I will say again, It is not Linux software that is lacking in functionality, nor the Kernel, nor the operating system itself. It is the Pompusly bad descions of distributors to ship distrobutions that are too top-heavy, and stocked with bad configurations that break becausee, in setting the default configurations of the OS.
Linux is not so hard to use as it is just plain top-heavy, and inconistant to manage. I'm a Mandrake User. Proud and true. I do alot of my configuration from the command line as well. But I can't configure a Gentoo or Slackware box at all. Why? Because none of them have so much as in ifup command. Thats right. ifup doesn't exist in Gentoo Linux.
There needs to be management consistency. Command line Utilities like ifup, ifdown, chkconfig, grep., locate.... I need these where I can find them.
As for bad configurations, yeah, alot of the configuration I have to do would be easier on my if someone would do a little planning ahead.
Lets say I install Flashplayer for Linux in/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox-1.0.4/plugins and that works fine. Okay. Lets say I install Mozilla 1.0.5 in an RPM update.... Oh no! Flash does work!
Why? Because FireFox is now looking for plugins in/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox-1.0.5/plugins and my flashplayer hasn't moved. Did I mention Mozilla Seamonkey 1.7.6 can't see it either?
How could this have been avoided? Simple./usr/lib/mozilla-firefox-1.0.4/plugins should be a symlink to a unifying/usr/lib/mozilla
But again, Distributors didn't plan for this problem. Its not the fault of the Linux Kernel or FireFox.
About Linux being too top-heavy. I have an old i586 200 Mhz, I need to be able to do something with it. There should be an edition of modern Linux that will work for these architechtures of older Pentium I and II. I'm not expecting anything grandiose, just *usable* for Server services or low power cients. Right now, I can't upgrade that computer from Mandrake 7.1 as a result of its low power.
OpenLDAP is what OpenLDAP is supposed to be. A Database Management Service. like MySQL. MySQL is one of the most sought after DBMS systems in the LAMP combo.
Now, couple things. MySQL's command line tools are no harder to use than LDAP's - It is not LDAP's responsibility to provide you with Graphical LDAP Management tools. Remember. LDAP is a Database architecture. That means its meant to communicate with other operating Facilities like:
PAM, NSS, MySQL, Apache, Kerberos, Nagios, PHP and the list goes on.
Its so difficult to configure LDAP to interconnect with all these other systems due to the lack of a Unified LDAP Management ultlity. LUMA and phpLDAPAdmin come close but still have a lot to go on.
There was a discontinued utility called Directory Administrator that is now obsolete
Someone needs to contribute to a standardized method of maniptlating the LDAP Databases, Managing slapd.conf (Core Configuration) slapd.access.conf (ACLs,) ldap.conf (LDAP Client).
I get so sick of listening of about how horrible OpenLDAP is because there is not enough inerta to create standardized LDAP Configuration Utilities in Perl, or PHP or C++ to manipulate the LDAP Database.
OpenLDAP is a good, solid implimentation of the LDAPv3 Protocol with as much flexibility as MySQL given peoples ability to use it correctly and having good third party open source Management Utilities.
I have operated LDAP for a number of years with very positive results my major problem being badly designed or non-existant third party management applications that lack flexibility.
I don't blame this on the OpenLDAP staff but rather the third party management tool makesrs like GQ, LUMA and phpLDAPAdmin for making LDAP so unweildly A properly configured Linux machine as an LDAP client is completely transparent.
And you can garuntee that the population will accept it because the consumer population will have no choice but to accept CSS and Macrovision and other forms of DRM.
They won't allow the viewing public to use the 1080i resolution unless they can lock in down as much as they can. However ethically repugnant and offensive it may be to someone informed.
Its more about fair Use than anything else. I might have bought the game if it did not contain any DRM system to infringe upon my fair use rights, as well as being cross-platform portable to Windows and Linux,
But they didn't - they appealed to DRM and fair use rights infringement of private citizens. Whether the game will be pirated or not has nothing to do with it.
I'm not asking for it to be GPLed, or even Open Source, just not treated like I'm something below Human.
My big beef with Half Life is the restrictive level of its liscence. I realize its just game, but I hate the dangerous precident it states in showing how easily the entertainment industry can control us. They can actually convince us to pay money to take our digital rights away from us, and the population will not resist.
At a time when we are facing an orwellian future of DRM, the cost of our digital civil rights is: Playing a game.
This is tragic in nature. Its a betrayal of free thinking principals by the population itself. The popuation of people who were willing to - without a second thought, buy this game when the full knowlege of what buying and installing this game meant as far as DRM goes is an unpardonable crime.
Half Life 2 proved that the public was willing to suffer major digital freedom loss to play a game. The evidence was right in front of the viewing public and the consumer ego mass still made the bad choice anyway.
I didn't buy HL2. (Don't Run Windows) but the fact that I made the choice not to really doesn't matter. It was the fact that the majority of computer using consumers who will buy freedom destroying software did so.
The choice that the consuming public makes affects everyone by what is availible in the future. I'm sure HL2 is an excellent quality game, but the terms of the game are simply cruel and malicious.
Again, its not about whether or not *I* choose to buy the game or not, its about what the majority of the consuming public was willing to do, and it is with the consuming public the fault lies.
There was a choice. They made the wrong choice and we will all pay for that choice years down the road.
Microsoft is destroying any chance I have at a future.
Before Windows 95, we had choices, computers were different with maany different applications and configurations and although most of them were Dos, the whole world did not revolve around Win 3.1.
Microsoft destroyed everything. Now, Linux is the only remaining x86 Holdout
Macs don't count. They have always had a closed proprietary architecture.
If the computer industry, and I am to have the future I wanted since I was in 7th grade is to happen, this M$ Dominance must end.
I do believe in keeping kids under control, keping them accountable for their actions, teaching them right and wrong, good and bad, and basic concepts like the respecting the rights of other people, being responsible, and a whole host of other things. But I never, EVER want to see kids hit, beat, or spanked. It should be a criminal act to abuse a child in that manner.
Sick ideas like this are the reason I refuse to have children.
Linux falls under a couple of categories dealing with this:
1. Its Supported, it just works. 2. Its not supported, it still works. 3. Its not supported, it doesn't work because the hardware manufacturer dilberatly made it so it wouldn't work. 4. It does work, you just don't know how to use it.
Lets say 200 years down the road, we dicover another intelligent Humanoid species circling another star system.
Will the church say that a Male Terran cannot cannot marry a female Non-Terran because Jesus Christ died on the cross for the Terrans inhabiting Earth?
Where are our writers? I Understand that Gene Roddenberry and Issac Asimov are dead. (Arthur C Clarke is still alive.)
I see science fiction/fantasy these days and I ask myself... where are our new generations of young writers and producers with the creativity or vision to produce new stories and new ideas in our time.
Allright, I'm going to have to weigh in on this. The GPL was designed the way it was for one reason: To protect the software from predators. Its a copylefting scheme. The major flaw in the BSD liscences is that it does not protect the code from proprietary and commercial intrest such as Microsoft, who want to take the code, create proprietary version of it, and sell that code when they have no right too.
GPL violations are like plagarism. Real Copyright infringement as the wishes of thhe author, is not cited, or noted in the closed proprietary Version denies the contribution of the original author.
As per the file sharing isssue. Filesharers DO Give credit to the original Author, they keep a working Works Cited list in Playlists and the ID3 Tags.
Why is it that an Operating system, which stores 99% of its configuration data in text files, Simply have a small light overhead PHP Webmin like Web Server running immediately to configure all aspects of that OS but only intially allowing queries from 127.0.0.1 While the port is firewalled off from the outside.
Not have At least a Sample working DN Suffix, default sample OUs, a Sample Kerberos KDC Ticket, RSA/DSA Key all stored and contigured from the moment I install that distro.
I'm talking about LDAP, PHP, Krb5, and SSH Being allready ready out of the box. You give me a legitimate reason why not?
I think that Linux Distributors need to help get distrobutions configurations optimized.
In Linux, often, the needs of the Enterprise have to translate into the needs of the Home User. I know you likely think that the Home User doesn't need OpenLDAP, when in reality, with the amount of information they have to manage using computers, they absolutely need OpenLDAP, MySQL, Samba, and other things.
Alot of Linux "Bugs" are fixable out of the box configuration issues. I have a friend of 8 years who much to my emotional devistation, is moving from Linux to Windows XP. The major issue he had? There was always something wrong in how something was configured.
The permissions not being set right on the CD Burner, Gaim not being absle to direct connect from behind a NAT, even a well configured Shorerwall NAT.
Linux can be configure such that it does "Just Work(tm)." The issue is the distributors, even Mandrake do a hard time gauging what the real needs of the Enterprise and Home Users are.
This isn't a "Linux Software is inferiror" issue its a "Why did you set the CD Burner to 600 when it should be 660" issue. These configuration issues cause Linux to fail. Giving people the impression Linux Software "Doesn't work" Like my friend.
Linux Distributors Underestimate the needs of Home Users and Distributors of this day and age with half-hearted configurations and sometimes downn right "Wrong" information. They substitute Universal comprehensive Linux Applications like Linuxconf for Proprietary ones like thee Mandrake Control Center.
The Distributors need to start creating more dynamic and sophisticated DEFAULT CONFIGURATIONS to meet the growing dynamic needs of today's home and Enterprise Users./etc/passwd and/etc/shadow Just don't cut it anymmore.
OpenLDAP, as an implimentation of LDAP v3 right now, is lightyears beyond Active directory in functional sophistication. Its not OpenLDAP that sucks.
Its the fact that Configuration is too hard because the nessessary interfaces aren't there. The only thing that comes close is "Directory Administrator"
OpenLDAP is a superb LDAP implimentation from a technical standpoint. Far outpacing ADS. ADS just has ease of use, that Open LDAP needs.
Linux needs OpenLDAP replacements for things like useradd, usermod, and passwd, or some way of modulizing them.
LDAP, Kerberos, Samba and all the things that come with that are critical to Linux's survival now. Linux will either live or Die on its ability to use LDAP, Kerberos, SSL and Samba.
LDAP is Linux's ultimate ability that permiates everything Linux can do and makes the many peices of Linux whole. Only the greatest of Linux Users cann use LDAP.
The thing is, its too damn hard, too damn difficult, and there is not enough documentation and configuration too;s for LDAP out there. I've spent three years on LDAP - I know.
Game developers will not port their games over to Linux because we want them too. Firstly, they believe a couple things:
- Linux users are such a minority they are a drop in the bucket - Linux Users won't pay - No DRM on Linux
The commercial game industry isn't going to buy that. The best thing to do is for F/OSS Developers to knuckle down and develop their own games. Thats right.
We need more Freedroids, we need more Vega Strikes, we need *Good* Versions of LinCity, Wesnoth and what not.
Our focus should be driving the game companies out of power.
The only way we will get the commercial gaming industry to even look at Linux is to make games that bite them in the wallet.
We are Linux users, and as Linux user we should stop complaining that the commercial industry that cares nothing for us isn't porting games.
Games are nessessary for this OS to market itself. I really wish we had more people. As someone who has contributed time and energy to Linux gaming I know something very VERY important. We need the Human capital to pump out good games. They don't have to be masterpieces, just reasonably well done, and those of us who are able should contribute more to this OS.
We really REALLY need Human being pumping out better quality (conservative) code.
What I mean by conservative code is code that does more with less resources. We need artists and we need ideas. The technology exists and I honestly don't think that it is a lack of Linux's ability to be a good gaming platform, I just don't think people are taking advantage of the green and unharvested pastures that are the potential for Linux games.
We need volunteers producing quality GPLed content to create a desireable product. Its time that the people step up to the plate and show what they are capable of when the effort is put forward.
Stop asking the commercial gaming industry to do it for us, they won't.
Actually, yeah, there are good games for Linux....
on
Linux Live Gaming Project
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
There are good game for Linux. In particular Vega Strike
and FreeDroid RPG
But you know what? It doesn't mean a damn to the commercial industry, the General Public wants its Half Life, and its Halo. Why? Because the commercial gaming industry floods the market with them. I do wish that FOSS Would band together and work to really push the good FOSS games out there and get Linux some exposure, but it won't happen until the Linux distributors get their heads out of their asses and realize that they need to really REALLY promote these games to their residential customers and stop shovelling them off in 'contrib' where you have to know what to look for to find them.
You know what? When I was 8, my mind was absolutely captivated by 'Star Master' from Atari. when I was 15? Descent and Doom.
Vega Strike would have made my crap my pants!
Do you realize how many Commodore 64 'Paradroid' fans were Orgasmically enthused over Freedroid RPG? We need to appeal to this emotion in people. and Promote our greatest accomplishments
Okay, a few things need to be addressed here. First is the fact that, yes, this is true. M$ Has 10 years of experience beyond the Linux Kernel, and has only begun to become more intuative in the last four. I've watched Linux grow from being a rouge hacker prototype OS used as a replacement for MS-DOS Trumpet PPP into a serious Enterprise OS. I've used Linux since Slackware 7.0.
We have alot to be thankful for, but this doesn't seriously address the Usability problem. The usability problem is created by a couple of things.
First, the Hardware manufactures such as Broadcom, and most Win-Modem makers are to some extent, cospiring against us. A good 85 % of x86 hardware is compatible with Linux. Its that "One that doesn't work." that gets people in a snag. That Lucent Win-Modem or that Linksys WMP11 can be the key to lock-in. Sound cards are generally supported very well by ALSA or OSS. I've never had a Serial ATA device before.
Video cards are also very very well supported and this is one of the few places I give credity to NVIDIA, ATI, and Intel. You can use Accellerated OpenGL. This is a Good thing, its just that the configuration of ATI and NVIDIA Cards tells me they don't know how to configure their cards' drivers for the Linux audience.
On the software end, I see a couple of problems. One is the gaming industry. The Gaming industry is possibly the biggest software problem Linux has. The other problem?
Well its not so much Microsoft Office as it is Microsoft Access. More specifically Microsoft Access's Form creation abilities I do use MySQL with MyODBC in MS-Access, but for me to beable to replace MS-Access, that would require me being a PHP Coder.
I also think Linux should be programmed a little more conservatively to run on older, slower machines, but as long as you have a job, that shouldn't be too big a deal.
Slashdot Mirror
As I have said before, and I will say again, It is not Linux software that is lacking in functionality, nor the Kernel, nor the operating system itself. It is the Pompusly bad descions of distributors to ship distrobutions that are too top-heavy, and stocked with bad configurations that break becausee, in setting the default configurations of the OS.
/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox-1.0.4/plugins and that works fine. Okay. Lets say I install Mozilla 1.0.5 in an RPM update.... Oh no! Flash does work!
/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox-1.0.5/plugins and my flashplayer hasn't moved. Did I mention Mozilla Seamonkey 1.7.6 can't see it either?
/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox-1.0.4/plugins should be a symlink to a unifying /usr/lib/mozilla
Linux is not so hard to use as it is just plain top-heavy, and inconistant to manage. I'm a Mandrake User. Proud and true. I do alot of my configuration from the command line as well. But I can't configure a Gentoo or Slackware box at all. Why? Because none of them have so much as in ifup command. Thats right. ifup doesn't exist in Gentoo Linux.
There needs to be management consistency. Command line Utilities like ifup, ifdown, chkconfig, grep., locate.... I need these where I can find them.
As for bad configurations, yeah, alot of the configuration I have to do would be easier on my if someone would do a little planning ahead.
Lets say I install Flashplayer for Linux in
Why?
Because FireFox is now looking for plugins in
How could this have been avoided? Simple.
But again, Distributors didn't plan for this problem. Its not the fault of the Linux Kernel or FireFox.
About Linux being too top-heavy. I have an old i586 200 Mhz, I need to be able to do something with it. There should be an edition of modern Linux that will work for these architechtures of older Pentium I and II. I'm not expecting anything grandiose, just *usable* for Server services or low power cients. Right now, I can't upgrade that computer from Mandrake 7.1 as a result of its low power.
OpenLDAP is what OpenLDAP is supposed to be. A Database Management Service. like MySQL. MySQL is one of the most sought after DBMS systems in the LAMP combo.
Now, couple things. MySQL's command line tools are no harder to use than LDAP's - It is not LDAP's responsibility to provide you with Graphical LDAP Management tools. Remember. LDAP is a Database architecture. That means its meant to communicate with other operating Facilities like:
PAM, NSS, MySQL, Apache, Kerberos, Nagios, PHP and the list goes on.
Its so difficult to configure LDAP to interconnect with all these other systems due to the lack of a Unified LDAP Management ultlity. LUMA and phpLDAPAdmin come close but still have a lot to go on.
There was a discontinued utility called Directory Administrator that is now obsolete
Someone needs to contribute to a standardized method of maniptlating the LDAP Databases, Managing slapd.conf (Core Configuration) slapd.access.conf (ACLs,) ldap.conf (LDAP Client).
I get so sick of listening of about how horrible OpenLDAP is because there is not enough inerta to create standardized LDAP Configuration Utilities in Perl, or PHP or C++ to manipulate the LDAP Database.
OpenLDAP is a good, solid implimentation of the LDAPv3 Protocol with as much flexibility as MySQL given peoples ability to use it correctly and having good third party open source Management Utilities.
I have operated LDAP for a number of years with very positive results my major problem being badly designed or non-existant third party management applications that lack flexibility.
I don't blame this on the OpenLDAP staff but rather the third party management tool makesrs like GQ, LUMA and phpLDAPAdmin for making LDAP so unweildly A properly configured Linux machine as an LDAP client is completely transparent.
And you can garuntee that the population will accept it because the consumer population will have no choice but to accept CSS and Macrovision and other forms of DRM.
They won't allow the viewing public to use the 1080i resolution unless they can lock in down as much as they can. However ethically repugnant and offensive it may be to someone informed.
Because its convienent, becausee its easy.
Its more about fair Use than anything else. I might have bought the game if it did not contain any DRM system to infringe upon my fair use rights, as well as being cross-platform portable to Windows and Linux,
But they didn't - they appealed to DRM and fair use rights infringement of private citizens. Whether the game will be pirated or not has nothing to do with it.
I'm not asking for it to be GPLed, or even Open Source, just not treated like I'm something below Human.
My big beef with Half Life is the restrictive level of its liscence. I realize its just game, but I hate the dangerous precident it states in showing how easily the entertainment industry can control us. They can actually convince us to pay money to take our digital rights away from us, and the population will not resist.
At a time when we are facing an orwellian future of DRM, the cost of our digital civil rights is: Playing a game.
This is tragic in nature. Its a betrayal of free thinking principals by the population itself. The popuation of people who were willing to - without a second thought, buy this game when the full knowlege of what buying and installing this game meant as far as DRM goes is an unpardonable crime.
Half Life 2 proved that the public was willing to suffer major digital freedom loss to play a game. The evidence was right in front of the viewing public and the consumer ego mass still made the bad choice anyway.
I didn't buy HL2. (Don't Run Windows) but the fact that I made the choice not to really doesn't matter. It was the fact that the majority of computer using consumers who will buy freedom destroying software did so.
The choice that the consuming public makes affects everyone by what is availible in the future. I'm sure HL2 is an excellent quality game, but the terms of the game are simply cruel and malicious.
Again, its not about whether or not *I* choose to buy the game or not, its about what the majority of the consuming public was willing to do, and it is with the consuming public the fault lies.
There was a choice. They made the wrong choice and we will all pay for that choice years down the road.
Microsoft is destroying any chance I have at a future.
Before Windows 95, we had choices, computers were different with maany different applications and configurations and although most of them were Dos, the whole world did not revolve around Win 3.1.
Microsoft destroyed everything. Now, Linux is the only remaining x86 Holdout
Macs don't count. They have always had a closed proprietary architecture.
If the computer industry, and I am to have the future I wanted since I was in 7th grade is to happen, this M$ Dominance must end.
You are a sick son of a bitch.
I do believe in keeping kids under control, keping them accountable for their actions, teaching them right and wrong, good and bad, and basic concepts like the respecting the rights of other people, being responsible, and a whole host of other things. But I never, EVER want to see kids hit, beat, or spanked. It should be a criminal act to abuse a child in that manner.
Sick ideas like this are the reason I refuse to have children.
Linux falls under a couple of categories dealing with this:
1. Its Supported, it just works.
2. Its not supported, it still works.
3. Its not supported, it doesn't work because the hardware manufacturer dilberatly made it so it wouldn't work.
4. It does work, you just don't know how to use it.
Lets say 200 years down the road, we dicover another intelligent Humanoid species circling another star system.
Will the church say that a Male Terran cannot cannot marry a female Non-Terran because Jesus Christ died on the cross for the Terrans inhabiting Earth?
Where are our writers? I Understand that Gene Roddenberry and Issac Asimov are dead. (Arthur C Clarke is still alive.)
I see science fiction/fantasy these days and I ask myself... where are our new generations of young writers and producers with the creativity or vision to produce new stories and new ideas in our time.
Where has all our intellectual capital gone?
We're in trouble. Big trouble. MS is going to do their damnest to throw everything they have at FireFox.
At this point, I'd look into FireFox::LDAP Integration, and hope for the best. F/OSS Waited too long.
Allright, I'm going to have to weigh in on this. The GPL was designed the way it was for one reason: To protect the software from predators. Its a copylefting scheme. The major flaw in the BSD liscences is that it does not protect the code from proprietary and commercial intrest such as Microsoft, who want to take the code, create proprietary version of it, and sell that code when they have no right too.
GPL violations are like plagarism. Real Copyright infringement as the wishes of thhe author, is not cited, or noted in the closed proprietary Version denies the contribution of the original author.
As per the file sharing isssue. Filesharers DO Give credit to the original Author, they keep a working Works Cited list in Playlists and the ID3 Tags.
Why is it that an Operating system, which stores 99% of its configuration data in text files, Simply have a small light overhead PHP Webmin like Web Server running immediately to configure all aspects of that OS but only intially allowing queries from 127.0.0.1 While the port is firewalled off from the outside. Not have At least a Sample working DN Suffix, default sample OUs, a Sample Kerberos KDC Ticket, RSA/DSA Key all stored and contigured from the moment I install that distro. I'm talking about LDAP, PHP, Krb5, and SSH Being allready ready out of the box. You give me a legitimate reason why not?
I think that Linux Distributors need to help get distrobutions configurations optimized.
/etc/passwd and /etc/shadow Just don't cut it anymmore.
In Linux, often, the needs of the Enterprise have to translate into the needs of the Home User. I know you likely think that the Home User doesn't need OpenLDAP, when in reality, with the amount of information they have to manage using computers, they absolutely need OpenLDAP, MySQL, Samba, and other things.
Alot of Linux "Bugs" are fixable out of the box configuration issues. I have a friend of 8 years who much to my emotional devistation, is moving from Linux to Windows XP. The major issue he had? There was always something wrong in how something was configured.
The permissions not being set right on the CD Burner, Gaim not being absle to direct connect from behind a NAT, even a well configured Shorerwall NAT.
Linux can be configure such that it does "Just Work(tm)." The issue is the distributors, even Mandrake do a hard time gauging what the real needs of the Enterprise and Home Users are.
This isn't a "Linux Software is inferiror" issue its a "Why did you set the CD Burner to 600 when it should be 660" issue. These configuration issues cause Linux to fail. Giving people the impression Linux Software "Doesn't work" Like my friend.
Linux Distributors Underestimate the needs of Home Users and Distributors of this day and age with half-hearted configurations and sometimes downn right "Wrong" information. They substitute Universal comprehensive Linux Applications like Linuxconf for Proprietary ones like thee Mandrake Control Center.
The Distributors need to start creating more dynamic and sophisticated DEFAULT CONFIGURATIONS to meet the growing dynamic needs of today's home and Enterprise Users.
OpenLDAP, as an implimentation of LDAP v3 right now, is lightyears beyond Active directory in functional sophistication. Its not OpenLDAP that sucks.
Its the fact that Configuration is too hard because the nessessary interfaces aren't there. The only thing that comes close is "Directory Administrator"
OpenLDAP is a superb LDAP implimentation from a technical standpoint. Far outpacing ADS. ADS just has ease of use, that Open LDAP needs.
Linux needs OpenLDAP replacements for things like useradd, usermod, and passwd, or some way of modulizing them.
LDAP, Kerberos, Samba and all the things that come with that are critical to Linux's survival now. Linux will either live or Die on its ability to use LDAP, Kerberos, SSL and Samba.
LDAP is Linux's ultimate ability that permiates everything Linux can do and makes the many peices of Linux whole. Only the greatest of Linux Users cann use LDAP.
The thing is, its too damn hard, too damn difficult, and there is not enough documentation and configuration too;s for LDAP out there. I've spent three years on LDAP - I know.
Game developers will not port their games over to Linux because we want them too. Firstly, they believe a couple things:
- Linux users are such a minority they are a drop in the bucket
- Linux Users won't pay
- No DRM on Linux
The commercial game industry isn't going to buy that. The best thing to do is for F/OSS Developers to knuckle down and develop their own games. Thats right.
We need more Freedroids, we need more Vega Strikes, we need *Good* Versions of LinCity, Wesnoth and what not.
Our focus should be driving the game companies out of power.
The only way we will get the commercial gaming industry to even look at Linux is to make games that bite them in the wallet.
We are Linux users, and as Linux user we should stop complaining that the commercial industry that cares nothing for us isn't porting games.
Games are nessessary for this OS to market itself. I really wish we had more people. As someone who has contributed time and energy to Linux gaming I know something very VERY important. We need the Human capital to pump out good games. They don't have to be masterpieces, just reasonably well done, and those of us who are able should contribute more to this OS.
We really REALLY need Human being pumping out better quality (conservative) code.
What I mean by conservative code is code that does more with less resources. We need artists and we need ideas. The technology exists and I honestly don't think that it is a lack of Linux's ability to be a good gaming platform, I just don't think people are taking advantage of the green and unharvested pastures that are the potential for Linux games.
We need volunteers producing quality GPLed content to create a desireable product. Its time that the people step up to the plate and show what they are capable of when the effort is put forward.
Stop asking the commercial gaming industry to do it for us, they won't.
There are good game for Linux. In particular Vega Strike and FreeDroid RPG
But you know what? It doesn't mean a damn to the commercial industry, the General Public wants its Half Life, and its Halo. Why? Because the commercial gaming industry floods the market with them. I do wish that FOSS Would band together and work to really push the good FOSS games out there and get Linux some exposure, but it won't happen until the Linux distributors get their heads out of their asses and realize that they need to really REALLY promote these games to their residential customers and stop shovelling them off in 'contrib' where you have to know what to look for to find them.
You know what? When I was 8, my mind was absolutely captivated by 'Star Master' from Atari. when I was 15? Descent and Doom.
Vega Strike would have made my crap my pants!
Do you realize how many Commodore 64 'Paradroid' fans were Orgasmically enthused over Freedroid RPG? We need to appeal to this emotion in people. and Promote our greatest accomplishments
Okay, a few things need to be addressed here. First is the fact that, yes, this is true. M$ Has 10 years of experience beyond the Linux Kernel, and has only begun to become more intuative in the last four. I've watched Linux grow from being a rouge hacker prototype OS used as a replacement for MS-DOS Trumpet PPP into a serious Enterprise OS. I've used Linux since Slackware 7.0.
We have alot to be thankful for, but this doesn't seriously address the Usability problem. The usability problem is created by a couple of things.
First, the Hardware manufactures such as Broadcom, and most Win-Modem makers are to some extent, cospiring against us. A good 85 % of x86 hardware is compatible with Linux. Its that "One that doesn't work." that gets people in a snag. That Lucent Win-Modem or that Linksys WMP11 can be the key to lock-in. Sound cards are generally supported very well by ALSA or OSS. I've never had a Serial ATA device before.
Video cards are also very very well supported and this is one of the few places I give credity to NVIDIA, ATI, and Intel. You can use Accellerated OpenGL. This is a Good thing, its just that the configuration of ATI and NVIDIA Cards tells me they don't know how to configure their cards' drivers for the Linux audience.
On the software end, I see a couple of problems. One is the gaming industry. The Gaming industry is possibly the biggest software problem Linux has. The other problem?
Well its not so much Microsoft Office as it is Microsoft Access. More specifically Microsoft Access's Form creation abilities I do use MySQL with MyODBC in MS-Access, but for me to beable to replace MS-Access, that would require me being a PHP Coder.
I also think Linux should be programmed a little more conservatively to run on older, slower machines, but as long as you have a job, that shouldn't be too big a deal.