Linux & Open Source Software, the Present 73
Mark writes to tell us that LinuxForums is running the second in a series of articles designed to reflect on "what Linux is, where it came from, where it's going, how to use it and why you should." With all of the recent talk about the perceived difficulties within the OSS community sometimes it is just good to take a look at our roots.
Rare Statement (Score:4, Insightful)
In my line of work (system administration in a medium sized business) I'm often having to integrate closed source and open source solutions (or at least make them play nice). I like a lot of Microsoft's products. I also like a lot of OSS. But I find that (generally) whenever I look to the OSS community for help integrating the two solutions, I'm met with resistance or flat out rudeness.
For example, if I'm seeking help with getting samba working nicely in a mixed environment or figuring out how to run a PHP app on a windows box, I get responses like, "Just ditch XP, d00d, it sux", and "Apache is better than IIS".
I think if the community, in general, could adopt the idea quoted in TFA, a "newbie's perceived difficulties" with the OSS community would be drastically different.
GNOME vs. KDE debate again? (Score:2, Insightful)
Gnome has, with it's "more is less" focus achieved, IMO, a better new user experience than KDE. Not that KDE isn't good, I'm only saying that for people I know that aren't necessarily technical but just want it to work, I set them up with Gnome (on Ubuntu). My biggest success story on that front was setting up a Gnome/Linux PC for my cousin (RedHat in this case, it was a while ago). She used it to do homework for 4 years, having never used Linux/Unix before, and never called me once for support. The only call I ever got was one from her Mom asking me how to mount a floppy disk to get a document copied.
Personally, I don't think we have that far to go for Linux to be easily usable...
There are still severe disadvantages... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Rare Statement (Score:3, Insightful)
Not that I'm defending said attitude, but...
How come you don't look for help on the other side?
What would be, say, Microsoft's reaction if you asked them for help on plugging your Windows box in a mixed network using Samba?
Especially in the light of Microsoft's intentional changing (i.e. breaking) the SMB, so that it wouldn't work with Samba.
Let's face it... more often than not, it's the clash of religions.
Why you should (Score:5, Insightful)
Despite continual advances and new wrinkles being thrown at us in the area of graphical user interfaces, for many tasks the console is still fundamental and without peer where speed is concerned. Microsoft and Apple can crow about their own approaches all they like; UNIX existed before both of them, and its' descendants will exist after those two companies' names have passed out of human memory.
On reading Eric Raymond's The Art of UNIX Programming, I came to realise that that book offered not just a methodology for programming, but for life in general. It also describes the thoughts and philosophies of a group of people who were as pioneering, adventurous, and brilliant as any other in human history, and to whom larger humanity will owe a debt of gratitude for at least the next several hundred years to come.
Re:linux is good, very good, we're THIS close! (Score:2, Insightful)
No offense, but if you want to present an objective argument, don't use FUD. There hasn't been a version of Windows released since 1994 that isn't 95% identical in interface or configuration. If you stuck someone familiar with only Win95 or NT4 in front of an XP desktop or 2003 Server, is there any doubt they'd be up and running in under a minute? I'm having serious trouble trying to take an affirmative answer to that question seriously.
Translation (Score:4, Insightful)
Translation: "I don't know because I've never had the desire to try it, but my ego doesn't allow me to admit that I don't know."
Re:Related link (Score:2, Insightful)
Shaking hands. Sticking tongue out. (Score:3, Insightful)
But also remember Linux is it's community. I might not write the software I use, but those who to are in my reach and willing to discuss. If I feel there is a problem, I can make others aware of that problem, leading to a solution. Microsoft doesn't have a community, there's no dialogue between consumer and producer. The backlash of Linux users against Windows users is a reaction against Microsoft not playing fair.
Microsoft purposely make their products difficult to be compatible with. They don't conform to purposeful neutral standards set out by the W3C etc, but use their own secret ways.. Office documents are notoriously difficult to read. Internet Explorer won't render perfect HTML/CSS but encourages malformed HTML. A specification for the MSN protocol has never been made avaliable. They play foul, they are a parasite burrowing deeper into their hosts. Microsoft never and aren't even expected to meet Linux half way in being able to read
Re:There are still severe disadvantages... (Score:3, Insightful)
And binary drivers aren't good, they're just acceptable. We geeks would love it if ATI or NVidia had open source drivers, but they don't, and the free offerings don't work right because NVidia and ATI hide their specs. Not much we can do about it.
It's confusion, but it's also choice. Do a little research and you'll find what's right for you. One size rarely fits all. I know a number of co-workers that couldn't fit into my size medium t-shirts no matter how hard they tried
Re:Rare Statement (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know where you ask, but I've done the same thing a lot of times without getting anything like that. An it's relevant to point out that if you're going to run PHP, Apache _is_ better than IIS.
And BTW: Windows installation of Apache, Apache/win32 installation of PHP, IIS installation of PHP and pretty much anything Samba is described extremely thoroughly in the installation documentation. When looking at support forums and mailing lists, I am really surprised to see how many questions which are answered _directly_ in the docs. And we're not talking about some obscure FAQ or mailing list archive, but bundled docs in nice HTML, often searchable on php.net or apache.org or whatever.
After writing the massive amount of documentation, I understand that the standard OSS developer doesn't care to answer the same questions in online forums.
(No offense BTW: There are obviously problems that go beyond documentation, and some projects have clearly lacking docs.)
Re:Rare Statement (Score:3, Insightful)
The ugly fact is that MS does not want to play nice with OSS products and is especially hostile to the GPLed ones. Nobody in the open source community can help it if exchange, AD, windows file server, etc uses proprietary protocols. Some people risk litigation and try to reverse engineer this stuff and sometimes they are pretty successful at it but that's them. The problem is the people like you want everybody to take the same type of risks. In this day of the DMCA you are just going to have to get used to the fact injecting MS products into your network means that you will always have problems with integration. Not just with OSS stuff either but with other vendors as well.
Maybe, just maybe the "newbies" can take some responsibility. Maybe then can start bitching at the people who are making their lives miserable (MS, hadware manufacturers who don't provide drivers, politicians who pass draconian laws, corporations who lobby for these laws etc) instead of bitching at the people who are providing them free software and trying their best deal with deluge.
The attitude "newbies" is ten times worse then the attitude of the RTFM people. Nothing but a bunch of ungrateful and sometimes hateful bile directed at developers without being willing to lift a finger to help solve the problem. Most newbies who bitch and moan will not even be bothered to post config files or log entries for gods sake.
Finally. It really really really does get annoying to answer the same fucking question for the hundredth time you know. I mean if the answer is in the FAQ or the manual why is everybody obligated to keep answering it for the idiots who can't be bothered to read it? Why is it so much of a burden for you guys to read a web site? Honestly please answer that for me? Why is it too much to ask you to read the documentation? How come you take so much affront when somebody asks you to do that.
Re:linux is good, very good, we're THIS close! (Score:5, Insightful)
In contrast OSS new features arise either in response to features seen in proprietary software, or simply because a developer discovers how to do something cool and suggests that it be included.
Wow, what a great picture. OSS coders are either lazy, unimaginitive losers who copy MS, or freaks fascinated by new, shiny things.
What about features that appear because a developer needs them? You know, like how 90% of all successful OSS projects start?
I've made some (minor) contributions to OSS projects, and in no case was it because I was copying a closed source feature or because I "discovered how to do something cool". It's because I needed a feature that didn't exist, so I made it happen.
Re:There are still severe disadvantages... (Score:2, Insightful)
A generic postscript driver just doesn't exist for Windows.
This is true. However the HP Laserjet 4 PS driver does pretty nicely if you need a dummy Postscript printer or some such.