[arachne] Re: OS advocacy

Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!




The inflexible directory structure, the inability to mount separate
partitions as separate logical drives,

Interesting. I think the flexibility of the directory structure is a *nix strength :) Softlinks being key.

the lack of a defined API that
does not change between versions,

While the changes required are more or less depending, all seem to have this issue to some degree. It doesn't seem to be more pronounced in linux than in other OSs. But maybe I just didn't notice.

the difficulty to uninstall software
again,

Most versions have a very easy to use installer/uninstaller. apt and urpm are two. Just one simple command to uninstall or install

the need to recompile almost everything if one downgrades to an
older component, the necessity to mount removable media before accessing
them and unmount them before removing them again,

Mounting and unmounting is mostly automatic these days. I hear this argument a lot. But in several major distros it works just like you'd expect. You put the removable media in and it works. You take it out when you're done and that's it. That's it. You do have the option of making it work the old, harder way if you like. But that's up to you.

the bloated X-Windows,


The old bloated thing. I tend to agree. But on the other end it seems the non bloat solutions have other restrictions that keep them from using my hw. So I'm either running bloatware or ware that doesn't use my hw. I'd like to see a practical solution to this.

and of course, the inability to run PC software other then in an
emulator -

That is an issue. But since I'm doing my best to only use multiplatform foss these days, it's less of an issue for me. The exception is when I have to for work. Then I use a 'commercial' machine anyway.

For about five years, I tried to maintain Linux as an alternative -
to Windows, not to DOS - and found it severely lacking. I compiled every
new version of the kernel, the GNU C library, the GCC compiler, the
X-Windows system, the Wine emulator and several other components. The
result was just frustration and a waste of my time.

I couldn't agree more. Compiling all that when there's a new version is a waste of time. And unnecessary(but isn't it soooo nice to have the option?). And I don't recommend it anymore than I'd recommend compiling every new dos, mac, or windows version of anything. There are binaries available. If there wasn't for the distro you choose, you should change distros. The will still be the odd program you'll need to compile if you're using foss but that's no different in any OS.

So I am really fed
up with both Windows *and* Linux now.


I can't wait for your new project to come to fruition if it solves all the problems of linux and windows AND is foss.
Arachne at FreeLists -- Arachne, The Premier GPL Web Browser/Suite for DOS --

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