Re: why !oh why Debian and application list
On 6/7/20 9:33 PM, Joe wrote:
Wouldn't that be something like Android? Where the user no longer owns
his computer, and therefore cannot break it, where there is one and
only one minimally-customisable user interface, where only software
approved by the OS vendor is available.... where the software probably
wouldn't be open source, as there would be no point....
My comments were not about software access or users' 'right to brake a
computer.' It was simply to be able to install and use an application. I
don't think having the ability to install and use an application without
resorting to kung-fu Linux is asking too much.
I have an Android phone and tablet, and I absolutely hate the OS. It is
such incredibly hard work to do anything that the masses don't
routinely want to do. I managed to find a web server that would
interface with a PHP server, and there's a version of MariaDB
available. But I couldn't get them all running for more that a few
seconds. To achieve that, I'd have had to use a third-party rooting
tool, which might contain anything, to adjust the OS running parameters
to allow three serious applications to run together. I used to run all
that stuff on a PC, and much more, with fewer resources than this
tablet. I've been spoilt by Debian.
This 'the masses' vs. 'the elite' narrative is not useful here. But if I
must follow your comments; masses or not, computer has to be functional.
We disagree on how to make it so. I think that Debian allows for much
more than Android (which was not my point of reference) is great. I
think that you can today install something like Picard on Debian and
cannot find it to use it, is, well, not so. Again, I'm not wanting to
install and configure a virtual machine, only a simple, to my mind,
application like Picard.
Let's face it, Android is a media appliance, and that's what the masses
want. That's probably where Ubuntu will end up. It's where your stable
OS with a great user experience would end up, because that's the
user experience that the masses want. It's not what I want from a
computer.
I think I've responded to this 'masses' narrative. But I will add; why
not work to bring a much more stable and secure OS, such as Debian, to
the 'masses'? That will be a dire public service need fulfilled. Among
your 'masses' I do not think there you will find a soul who prefers to
have a virus infested Windows machine. Or, one that forces them to buy a
new hardware ever so often, as OSX.
Though, now I add, with the fast growth of 64 bit computing, that leaves
many an old machine useless, such as will not install latest versions of
Firefox, Tor, Thunderbird, etc, this too is not a great mark on the
Linux world. I got into Linux when the pitch was: an operating system
that will run on your old computer that Microsoft will no longer
support. That line has since been lost in the Linux world. And sadly so.
Once an OS with potential to reduce e-waste, now a contributor, except
of course, if you have a life to waste trying to find and get old
applications to run on 32 bit systems. BTW, OSX has such a website
devoted to PPC apps. Does this exist in the Linux world?
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