[Ilugc] Re: Another storm (XXX and Sex Education)
- From: prabhu_r@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Prabhu Ramachandran)
- Date: Fri Nov 26 20:07:50 2004
"SK" == Sriram Krishnan <ksriram@xxxxxxx> writes:
>> (Prabhu) the windows world is waking up to CLI interfaces, and
>> security,
SK> true multiple user setups etc.
SK> I'm happy that finally someone admits this.Windows has come a
SK> long way from its BSOD, GUI-only administration days.
Selectively quoting my email is rather unfair. The unfortunate
problem is many people do not say the reverse about Linux really
having a compelling desktop solution. If someone does say so he is
branded anti-MS, fanatic etc. The truth is, windows isn't great at
CLI and security, Linux on the desktop is OTOH very usable.
>> (Chandrashekar) Actually the general statement that UNIX-like
>> OS's made zero
>> inroads into user-friendly GUI's is so wrong.
SK> Joel was probably referring to popular mindshare. He correctly
SK> mentions Apple in the article as the the first GUI-based
SK> system to become widely popular.As for Gnome and KDE and
SK> others, they may be great pieces of work growing very fast,
SK> but I doubt whether their numbers are comparable to Apple's
Largely irrelevant. Fact remains that Linux does have a decent and
very useful desktop and the argument today is largely bogus.
SK> numbers, let alone Microsoft's. Don't believe me? Check out
SK> the archives of Google Zeitgeist.Linux maybe an excellent
SK> product - and though a lot of people have heard of it, not
SK> many from the non-techie population are using it full-time.
So? What is new there? Talk facts please not what the masses think.
SK> Actually, I don't know why Ubuntu was spoken about.Though I'm
SK> sure its an excellent distro, excellence doesn't automatically
SK> mean popular mindshare('popular' as in outside the geek
SK> community) . From my personal experience,the non-techie people
SK> who know of Linux mostly know of Redhat and to a small extent
SK> Suse and Mandrake.
SK> Btw, Joel isn't the only one to criticize OSS usability. Check
SK> out Eric S Raymond's article on how he struggled with CUPS.
SK> Also, see
SK>
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/25/1416208&tid=189&tid=1
SK> 56 and the forums of www.ok-cancel.com where this was a hotly
SK> contested topic once.
Your point? Do you claim that MS has a better usability record? Talk
to a Mac head.
SK> Usability isn't the only issue here. If Linux *has* made
SK> in-roads into desktop systems, why is it that 30 out of 41
SK> people who responded to the recent survey on this list
SK> dual-boot with Windows? I'm sure they have their reasons -
SK> perhaps the lack of a lot of popular software or games -or
SK> maybe they have some hardware issues - or perhaps they have
SK> some documents which only proprietary software like
SK> Photoshop/3DS Max/MS Office would open.
You forget probably the most important of all -- work.
SK> Whatever be their reasons, the point to note is that those
SK> reasons do exist.If members of a Linux mailing list find
SK> themselves unable to live without Windows, how do you expect
SK> the general public to do so?
Largely bogus argument. The problem really is that there are too many
proprietary pieces of software that are simply not
cross-platform/cross-OS. The fact remains that Windows does have the
largest mindshare. It does not mean that Windows is the best OS in
town or that Linux is unusable and has no decent GUI environment. If
you want choice, OSS is way better.
Also notice how you started with CS students and are now talking about
non-tech masses...
cheers,
prabhu
p.s. This is the last post for me. I've exceeded my quota.
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