Lucy Linux, Dressed to Kill

An anonymous reader sent us a fairly positive article about Linux but written primarily from the perspective of a Mac advocate. Talks a lot about KDE, the usability issues and similiarities between Mac and Linux advocacy.

Domestic violence.

I cannot agree more. As I have moved to the freedom of GNU/Linux, I am overwhelemed with how much the system just plain likes me. I thought OS/2 liked me, and I thought I loved it. But it was cruel to me. It hates me. It doesn't work.

GNU/Linux does.

I've been with OS/2 long enough that I consider myself a `battered-spouse' OS/2 user. Like anyone in a codependent relationship, I continue to use OS/2, and it doesn't seem to know that I'm seeing another operating system (and a freed one at that).

I feel empowered. I'm in control. My computer is MINE!

(I do not mean to make light of domestic violence, as that is a terrible thing (as I should well now, being a survivor of some moderate violence myself in the past). I am simply drawing an analogy.)

Cheers,
Joshua.

Cut and paste with X11.

You might want to take a look at the xclipboard(1) program. It does exactly what you want. Just mark the text in your xterm or whatever, go to xclipboard, and click both the left and right mouse button simultaneously in the blank area (or middle mouse button if you have one). Voìla! xclipboard also has the cool `Next' and `Prev' buttons to go back and forth between texts. (You can use Alt+C and Alt+V to copy and paste in Netscape and most other Motif programs.)

The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend

That's a quote from one of the section headers of the article.

The author also states: "it is not sufficient for us to simply bad mouth Linux and dismiss it. (Let Microsoft do that.) To do so makes us just as ignorant and stupid as the Best Buy salesmen who keep repeating the litany that Apple is dead or the PC idiots who seem to get everything wrong when they write about the iMac."

Have you noticed that one and only one software maker consitantly spreads FUD, lies and misinformation about the competetion?

Damnit there are hundreds and hundreds of different automobile models to choose from, yet they all are profitable and they all share enough traits and characteristics in common so that once you learn how to drive, you can drive any model.

There's no reason why several OS's can't simultaneously be successfull. There's also no reason why standards can't be open enough for several OS's to co-exist and transparently talk to one another and share data.

The biggest problem in the entire world of software is that one company, Microsoft, cannot tolerate the idea of anyone on the face of planet earth producing software except them.

If Microsoft would compete on an honest and decent level and on the merits of their own product, without using dishonest and sleezy tactics to try to undermine honest competition, I would have nothing against them.

Yet, it is these sleezy tactics that undermine and stifle innovation in the software world.

The author of this article shows a very mature and well reasoned position on the coexistance of platforms.

He has elevated my opinion of the Mac community.

Here's a Friday afternoon beer bottle toast to John Martellaro, Lucy Linux, and Miss Mac!

this Mac user's first impressions of Linux

I've been a Mac user and programmer for 15 years. I recently got an Intel box and put Red Hat Linux on it. I didn't originally think I'd need to bother with X-windows, but when it comes to administering the system, it's nice to have a GUI.

Just getting my video card (i740) and keyboard (backspace key!) to work right in X was a long and painful adventure.

Things that Mac users take for granted, like copy and paste, and consistent key shortccuts across applications, are non-existant.

KDE feels clunky somehow; I can't describe it because I didn't like it and installed GNOME instead. GNOME feels better, but the Midnight Commander crashes, and has some really obvious bugs. KDE's filesystem-browser is pretty nice.

I'll stick to my Mac for most things, for now. But I'm reading slashdot and typing this reply while chasing a bug in my Mac program that's causing me to reboot every five minutes.

DOug