Re: Linux in Wired
On Fri, 29 Aug 1997 stick@richnet.net wrote:
> > IMO, microsoft should get out of the operating system game and leave
> > it to those who actually have a clue about OSes....like linux or bsd
> > kernel hackers and unix programmers for example.
>
> IMNSHO, MS should write a libwin95.so and a win95wm for Linux. That
> way we'd have the application support and the users who want the 95
> look-and- feel could have that as well.
i don't see that that's at all necessary :-). in fact, it would probably be
a bad thing. i'd trust the WINE crew to do a good job of that before i
trusted an MS programmer.
we already have fvwm95 which is much better, imo, than win95's window
manager. all we need are the emulation libraries and .DLLs etc to make
it possible to run win32 apps....that will come eventually with WINE and
Willows' TWIN libraries.
> > MS should focus on their applications which, for the most part,
> > aren't too bad. in fact, some of their apps are fairly decent if you
> > like that sort of thing.
>
> If you say so. I think their apps are just a tad bloated.
me too. in fact, more than just a tad...but all commercial office
applications are bloated. marketing droids have screwed up the
marketplace so that a simple word processor isn't good enough any more, it
has to do word processing and desktop publishing and html editing as well
as interface directly to the kitchen sink and coffee machine (sort of like
emacs, only much worse and with no source code :-)
i can, however, see why their apps are attractive to many people. they do
what they are supposed to do (for the most part) and are fairly easy to
use.
they have stability problems (like random crashes for no apparent reason)
which are quite noticeable to a linux user who isn't used to that sort of
thing, but probably isn't even noticed by a win or win95 user because they
expect computers to be like that. (believe it or not, but this is true.
many people believe that it is NOT even remotely possible for a computer
to run without crashing all the time. this is entirely due to
over-exposure to crappy operating systems which do crash all the time).
but mostly, they are fairly decent apps that do a fairly good job.
i don't object to MS applications the way I object to MS operating
systems. I don't like them much, but they don't cause me the grief that
Win 3 & 95 & NT do.
> > this is the kind of thing that linux needs - apps, apps, and more
> > apps.
>
> Absolutely. Linux also needs marketing, marketing, and more
> marketing. I can only think of one business need that Linux based
> systems don't support - OCR. Everything else is available.
i won't disagree with this as long as the marketing types understand
their place in the scheme of things - well and truly in the back seat.
one of the things that makes commercial software so crappy is that
marketing types think that they are competent to direct a technical
project like developing software.
marketing's job is to sell what has been produced, not to restrict the
programmers' creativity according to bullshit marketing theories.
craig
--
craig sanders
networking consultant Available for casual or contract
temporary autonomous zone system administration tasks.
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