Re: I wish to advocate linux
On Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:50:12 -0500
Mark Filipak <markfilipak.linux@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2013/2/26 4:42 PM, Miles Fidelman wrote:
> > Mark Filipak wrote:
> >>
> >> For everyone who doesn't have their own development department to
> >> adapt Linux kernels to their widget, Linux has been a toy OS for
> >> technoweenies. That hasn't changed in 10 years and Linux has made
> >> no headway on the desktop (or the laptop). Why is that?
> >
> > Toy OS for technoweenies? Try server o/s powering an awful lot of
> > major applications.
> >
> > Desktop Linux has less of a value proposition. Face it, most
> > people use computers at work, where you've got to run MS Office -
> > which means Windows or MacOS. Real simple.
> >
> > Miles Fidelman
>
> Your attitude, Miles, is typical and is a large part of the problem.
>
>
First you define your task.
Then you choose your software.
Only then do you choose the OS.
If you need MS Office compatibility, and I mean compatibility to the
extent available between different versions of it, then you run MS
Office, and you do it on Windows or Mac. End of story. Before anyone
says differently, I do use LibreOffice, on XP and Sid, but I also have
a Win7 machine running Office 2010 for those documents which don't work
right on LO. I saw one of them today. If I'm sending an important
document to someone else, by choice I will not use an Office document
format. If I must, then I'll try creating it with LO, but I'll check it
with MS Office before I send it.
If you need to use proprietary hardware, you almost certainly need to
use Windows, because the necessary drivers haven't been written for
anything else. The Saleae Logic logic analyser has good Linux software,
the Microchip programmers do not. As for less exotic hardware, there's
no doubt that vendors are discouraged from making Linux drivers
available.
If you need very cheap CAD or other technical software, it's probably
Linux. If you don't like sacrificing much of your computer's power to
security software (I'm looking at *you*, McAfee) then you want Linux.
If you want to fully own your computer (see my earlier post) then it
has to be Linux. For a server that uses sensible resources and can be
fixed easily, Linux, without question.
And so on, and so forth... horses for courses. If you let prejudice tie
you to one platform, you're limited in all sorts of ways.
--
Joe
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