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Following is an email that I sent to Tomas Matejicek (SLAX) just minutes
ago. After that I clicked “blog” on their site. Please read the following. There
is a very big donation here.
Thank you for slax. I'm an old ex-computer engineer and I used some Linux
distributions occasionally and the experience was always frustrating and very
disappointing and proved that I am on the right side among those who discovered
that we are on the very wrong track and moving in the very painful and expensive
opposite direction even when it comes to freeware, contribution-ware,
donation-ware ...etc. Among the Linux distros that I used was slax since the
days when the philosophy of slackware was that it should be unable to handle
other languages. Your new site lists only packages for specific languages,
including one called "English", and (of course) they all have nearly the same
size. I speak Arabic and I picked the Arabic package to discover after
installation that it is indeed bi-lingual as much as anyone expects but the
other language beside English is Pakistan's language !!!. It is not Arabic at
all. I discovered that changing the language-related setting in all Linux
distros is now a trivial task and this forced me to write to you to thank you
first for the small size of your distro download unlike other distros that are
growing in number and download size like cancer. Changing the language in slax
did not download anything compared with the unbelievable amount of packages that
Ubuntu-live downloaded (without permission) when I did the same, and most of
them were the exact applications included in their very big distro but (I guess)
they are "Arabized" which is a very ancient and totally forgotten word and the
surprising total download size can be compared to the size of downloads that
Debian-live needed to add gedit to cfx. After the download I discovered that
kate is "excellent" in comparison. I need to point out that Arabic is a language
not just a bunch of characters, so contextualization is an intrinsic part of
this language. I did not have problems at all with contextualization in slax,
while both Debian-live and Ubuntu-live terminals were unable to contextualize at
all and I had to download a different terminal application. I believe that
contextualization should be part of what is called "The Arabic Language" in all
distros, i.e. no one should mention the word "Arabic" without contextualization.
That's why I believe that It should be dealt with once and for all and should be
in the core of the OS not to be repeated in each and every application within
the limitations of their knowledge and abilities. I felt very sorry when I
tried, (just one more time !!! over the long years !!!) to accomplish what
should have been a very trivial task at a very early point in time. This time it
was "multi-boot". I know more than many others that I am in Egypt, but the
amount of time that was wasted to search for the so many dangerous pieces of
junk (the "Google" way) and the higher-than-usual number that I was able to find
and the time and extra pressure over my nervous system while trying to even just
have one Linux distro in place the right way was very high this time. Only
memories of what was called "Focus" are more painful. Finally, I managed to
succeed using an older version of Yumi. For slax it was really disappointing to
have everything almost "perfect" compared to others then facing the same old
problem that I had with the old releases yeaaaars ago, namely "CPU#x not
responding". Again I stress that I am in Egypt and I know the kind of machines
that we get here. We don't even get just the defective, only what is MUCH WORSE.
But the same machines ran other Linux distros and Windows with other problems.
I want to make a donation. I am very poor when it comes to money, but I
have an idea that is worth toooo much. It is a real "donation" which means that
it is absolutely "free" but it is conditional and totally restricted to the full
and absolute compliance with the pre-conditions. The condition presented first.
I am jobless since the day I was graduated in the early 80's, and I was fired
one way or another from the many places where I tried (hard) to do something
useful, that's why I was "burned" to a lower level than others in this
holocaust. The pre-condition for the donation is that it can only be used in the
exact opposite direction. I want to set the fire off, not to pour more fuel.
When it comes to Linux, no doubt that there have been good intentions all the
time, but we can all compare the current situation, or even what we had ten to
fifteen years ago with the amount of efforts wasted. I could not see anything
new in Linux when I tried to use it after all those years. Where did all the
efforts go ?!!!. To make the picture clearer, let me tell you that the reason
why I tried to use Linux this time was that the historical stupidity and
criminal silliness' named "windows console" is still unable to even just display
Arabic characters !!!, although those miserable, and many others, were able to
do that even with DOS on XT's. So it is not a surprise that one of my suns is
wasting his life at a university that is telling the soooo many in this
generation as well that they will learn computers, and some companies run after
them telling them about "training" to suck money out of them too. Linux
downloads became GIGA-Bytes and they are all almost the same. I know (enough)
about the differences between this library and that one, and consequently this
desktop from that one, and consequently this set of applications from that one
...etc. I know "enough" about that as much I knew "enough" about the different
versions of "UNIX" itself, and the "parallel" efforts and the "integration"
efforts to produce S5R4 for example. I want to donate Linux "S5R As four".
"Asfour" is my family name. It is not meant to be an insult. I am a real
inventor to an extent that many are not aware of. I am subject to many criminal
acts not just threats, theft and robbery ...etc and this is my way to retaliate.
I believe that the real differences between "different" Linux distros are
little, and that the major part of Linux and its applications is common. So, for
example, if I had a way to (even just) compose what I wanted at the firt place
from among (even just) what is available, I would have saved a lot of time,
effort and misery on my side, together with lots of efforts on the side of the
those (so many) who are still making those (countless number of) distros, as if
they are trying to set a higher record over those who are still making more
BASIC versions !!! the same way !!! all those years !!!. The Idea is not just
that. It is easy to have a site where everyone can go, answer some (or many)
very straightforward simple questions, and end up with a very reasonable size of
"perfect" download. The idea goes further. Many linux distro makers mention low
memory and CPU requirements, and many of them mention high performance on older
machines ...etc, although they can simply plot
1) The real growth in Linux requirements, against
2) The real growth in the real needs on Linux consumers side, against
3) Anything they added in the direction of satisfying the real needs over
the very long long years.
So, the idea is for the developers and consumers to sit (ON THE SAME SIDE)
and try to see the real needs first and before anything else. That was one of my
inventions and I used an example in car industry but the donation is only for
Linux (and some of his applications) if and only if they are among the
really-totally-free-of-any-charge software. The consumer should be able to
express his needs. The site should vey strictly stick to only the ethical ways
to help the consumer to discover them. A multi-level questionnaire is a very
good start. For example, the consumer should be able to see the relation between
what he has (discover the different configurations of his old machines for
example), what he wants (discover the different "modes", "profiles"...etc of his
activities that need computers), what is available (see the set of apps that are
suitable for each "mode" and really try them before downloading anything), and
discover the whole picture (the "wealth" of applications that were developed in
exactly the wrong opposite direction and were just piled over the years). I
believe that after a (relatively) very short period, the word "multi-boot" (as
well) will vanish although by that time everyone will get exactly what he wants
on every machine and for every "mode", no matter if he downloads a "unified"
distro to carry on a USB stick in order to boot in a different "mode" each time,
or downloads few very "sharp" distros each of them making a machine extremely
happy. I believe that in a (relatively) very short time we will be able to alter
many parts of the software (Linux and the applications) to take advantage of
this mechanism, up to the extent that we can gather the requests from the
consumers' side this way and (really) deliver the early fruits after a month or
two after we (as well) will be able to see a broader part of the picture (the
real overall demand, and consequently the priorities of each software
modification) and divide and restructure the code accordingly. Later, (but very
soon as well), we can deliver re-engineered supreme products. The idea is very
"Big" so please don't consider it personal for any one or any group or any
company ...etc. On the contrary, please make everyone happy by spreading it. You
can do that better than many others. But repeat my pre-conditions as well. This
is in order to go in the opposite direction, so before anyone can use the
donation we all have to sit and talk. Those who are still manufacturing more and
more of such stupid mentally-retarded machines and those who are still burning
more and more of the very precious human brains in useless development in the
opposite direction should be stopped. Anyone that will commit anymore of these
crimes must be severely punished for the sake of all of us on both sides. The
agreements must be in place and must by respected first, then we can all talk
about what to do with "old machines" and "old software"...etc. By the way. I
have Ideas for the future that can make much more money than any more such
mentally-retarded stupid and silly crimes against humanity.
I really appreciate everyone’s efforts and really thank you for slax.
Regards. |