RE: Open Source Supported Graphics Cards
On Monday, August 14, 2006 5:48 PM -0500, Katipo wrote:
> Seth Goodman wrote:
>
> If that were true, the vast majority of us, who used to be Windows
> users, wouldn't be here.
Right. I use Windows for most of my work projects, and before that, I
used Unix for many years. I'm not a casual computer user, and I doubt
you are either. I'd wager that most people here are not typical Windows
users. Are you comfortable with the concepts of DHCP, DNS and file
system partitions? If so, you're not a typical Windows user. _That's_
what we're dealing with. Pretending it were not so will not make it go
away.
> You can add your lone voice to the increasingly agitated Microsoft
> endorsers, as you see fit - we're all for free speech here, but I
> don't think it's going to slow the gradual migration percentage
> away from Windows considerably.
I have no idea where the sentiment you are criticizing came from, but it
wasn't from anything that I posted. It is very helpful, and doesn't
make one an "endorser", to look at what your worst enemy has done and
recognize when they've done something useful. If you want to prevail
over something, and it is my fondest hope that someone, _anyone_,
prevails over this bunch of corporate thugs, you would do well to notice
what they do that works, as well as their failures.
I respectfully disagree that the lack of a reasonable installation and
desktop experience for the non-technical user will not slow down the
gradual migration away from Windows. It already has. Linux has
established itself as the preferred choice for most server applications,
and it has a good chance of dominating that market. The non-technical
desktop user, who is not supported by an IT staff, is another matter and
a place that we need a lot of improvement to even gain a foothold. What
do you suppose would be the browser market share today for FireFox if it
were released only on Linux?
> Microsoft's present marketing-blurb overtures in the direction of
> free/open source scream that they are aware of it also.
> Even that will quieten down, when the effluent from the quagmire of
> their own creation fills their mouths, as they go under for the
> final time.
Nothing would make me happier than if I believed this. Unfortunately,
they continue to do one thing right where the non-commercial Linux
distros have consistently failed, and this prevents the scenario that
you suggest from happening. That is, they provide a platform that the
non-technical user can install and maintain without a guru at their
disposal.
We're not there, and I don't see much motion in that direction. If you
expect the Windows crowd to start reading Linux books and becoming
computer-literate, that's not realistic. There will always be more
people who don't read the books than those who do, and what _they_
choose will still drive the whole system. It doesn't matter how many
times we tell them why we _know_ their machines are holier than a piece
of Swiss cheese. They don't understand and it's just noise to them. As
long as we insist on the current paradigm, Linux will continue to be the
choice of professionals and largely unusable by the general public.
There's no reason we can't make the product usable for the larger,
computer-as-appliance group without diluting what it does for the
software professional.
--
Seth Goodman
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