petrus4's Journal: How can Linux even remotely hope to compete?

I'm here at a cousin's place, using his iMac. I've only played some WoW and done some light browsing. Less than half an hour, and it's the first time I've used OSX for this long.

To provide some context, I've also used Linux on and off since the mid 90s, with my first exposure to FreeBSD in 1995. I currently run FreeBSD 7.1 at home.

With even this small amount of exposure to OSX, though, I honestly have to wonder why anyone is bothering to continue to use or develop Linux in particular at all. I can only assume that it's because they are either members of Richard Stallman's cult, or they can't afford a Mac.

Other than cost, I'm uncertain as to what IBM are smoking that is causing them to continue to promote Linux, and there is also the question of how much more perfectly good money Mark Shuttleworth is willing to flush down the toilet before he recognises his lost cause for what it genuinely is, as well.

Do you have even a vague inkling of just how chronically redundant and pointless OSX has made your operating system, Linux users? Possibly for embedded applications, I can see a point, but in terms of the desktop, there is now truly no practical reason for Linux to exist at all.

OSX is the UNIX Holy Grail. It represents the realisation of a vision that has existed ever since UNIX was first implemented; more than 30 years. It is a stable, end-user friendly, fully certified, desktop version of UNIX that Just Works.(tm)

And Linux? ROFL. A comparitive analysis is an act of genuine cruelty to Tux. Aside from maybe Slackware or Arch, the only way to get a Linux desktop system that is not slow, bloated, unstable, broken garbage is to compile Linux From Scratch. The main reason why I'm now using FreeBSD at home, is because I want UNIX, I don't have the money for a Mac, and I got sick of the fact that custom compilation is the only way I could produce a Linux system that I could actually tolerate. I know none of you will admit this, but there is no major distribution for Linux that truthfully is not garbage.

There is no truly stable sound system for Linux. ALSA is an obscenity.

There is no desktop environment for Linux that is not either a) bloated as Hell, b) terminally unstable, or c) ugly. GNOME, in both technical and aesthetic terms, is raw sewage. With Ubuntu, it even literally looks like it.

There is only half-decent USB support for Linux via the addition of obscene, bloated kludges; HAL and DBUS.

Package management is a joke, and I'm no longer laughing. Binary upgrades of Ubuntu are renowned for destroying a working system, and I've had people casually mention the use of deborphan as though that is something which should be normal in 2009. That doesn't even mention the number of traumatic personal experiences I've had with rpm or dpkg, either.

The only reason why I can think of, aside from the cost issue, that anyone might have a vague incentive to keep using Linux, is in order to obtain the blessing of a certain obese, aging, chronically autistic, neo-Bolshevik hippie from Boston. Personally, the attainment of his blessing is not something I consider a high priority, especially given the degree of computer using hardship that is required in order to receive it.

Cost has always been a problem, but if I'm able to get hold of $3000 or so AUD any time soon, I now know what I'm going to be doing with it. FreeBSD is bearable, but even its' rough edges have been smoothed away with OSX.

Linus, as much as I hate to break it to you, the war is over, and you've well and truly lost. It's time to put your beloved baby penguin out of its' misery. The poor animal has dragged itself along the floor for close to 20 years now. It is needlessly suffering, and truthfully it's causing a lot of other people to suffer as well; primarily those who are quite happily using better operating systems, but who are continually harassed by FSF cultists who haven't got the memo. I know you've already been sent a Mac, but I'd also seriously recommend looking into whether or not Apple are hiring.

Yowza

[Captain Splendid]

Tell us how you really feel. Though, to be honest, I can't disagree with you much. Having just acquired a Mac Mini for my office, having the easy to use OSX environment on top of all the command line goodies is indeed a very nice mix. I hear you on price, but while I could have bought twice the hardware for what I paid for the Mini, I could also roll the mini out much faster. So, macs at the office, and a self-built windows/linux machine at home. It is a good time to be a geek.

co$t

[zogger]

I was a *very* happy mac classic user for years, starting with a 512k, which I still have. I mean I tried DOS and windows, yeech, couldn't stand it, typing commands sucks and windows was never all that smooth back in the day. People I know who had it were always bitching about this or that and my macs just worked, and were secure with no hoop jumpng. And it just wasn't hard to get your extensions-fu down and assign RAM intelligently either, so multi tasking was still doable. I know some people just never co

Well, ya

[zogger]

If you *notice* I said for modern gaming and for some workstation apps or development, you might need something different. This affects less than 1% of the population on the workstation apps I bet, some low number. For everyone else..

here's my quote, relevant bits bolded: "Same with computers, I think all of them hit a "good enough" cost and function level for most people in the early 2000s, windows, linux, mac, the bsds, ec, so it really doesn't matter for most folks out there outside of a few niches like