Re: free software mini pc

[Joel Rees <joel.rees@gmail.com>]

(You just sparked another rant.)

On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 6:55 PM, Andrei POPESCU
<andreimpopescu@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jo, 16 feb 12, 08:43:20, Joe wrote:
>>
>> Hardware compatibility happens in the MS world because the boot is on
>> the other foot, in that manufacturers have no choice but to engineer
>> their products to work with Windows, and modify them if problems are
>> found. No such incentive exists (yet) for Linux compatibility.
>
> It would be enough for hardware manufacturers to stick to the relevant
> standards, but more than often they implement them in various different
> ways or simply ignore them and then release Windows drivers that

sort-of

> work
> around the issues.

But not really.

Unless you consider MSWindows-only-the-version-you-bought-maybe stable.

I have a Lenovo S100 which has some nice MSWindows-only features which
require drivers for, oh, wow, last year's version of MSWindows. And
didn't really work fully then. (And don't ask me about the QuickStart
that needs a kernel update but can't find the server.)

The problem is not the OS. It's the ridiculously hard level of
(business) competition being engaged in, to try to capture the pipes
for the coming century. It's very similar to what killed the railroads
at the beginning of the last century.

Too many people want the patent on the bridge that the whole world has
to cross, but don't want the responsibility of maintaining that
bridge.

As for your requirements, I've been looking and hoping for longer than
you, and now I think it's expecting too much. Think about cars at the
beginning of the last century. My father used to tell me about his
buddies who used hand-operated windshield wipers. (He was a teenager
between WWI and WWII.) As much as we would rather have off-the-shelf
stuff, that is not the state of the industry.

If you don't want to believe me, imagine you won the lottery, then go
check how much money and how much time and how many employees it would
take to set up a company to build and support the device you want.

(The venom beneath the surface is not towards you. It's towards
Microsoft, Apple, Intel, and, to a certain extent, Google, among
others. And I guess I could have been a bit more brief and just said,
yes, your expectations are a tad high for current reality. But if your
boss says, "Then Windows, ...," tell him he's living in a dream world.
Look for a little more DIY and a little more hands-on time keeping it
free and running.)

--
Joel Rees