Comment Re:Let me be the first critic (Score 1) 1127
I'm not entirely sure that's the case.
Consider, as an example, the Mac. The mac os doesn't really work with ANYTHING but mac hardware, unless you're either really great at research and following directions, or reverse engineering drivers. It's still got a huge section of the market, though, because it's an alternative to the big doom-machine that is microsoft. Linux, to me, is an option b to this. When you don't want to spend the money on the more expensive apple hardware, but you want a choice of not using microsoft's operating system (which is buggy, as well, and more virus prone) you then turn to linux. It's the in between, because a lot of hardware is spotty on linux, but a lot less spotty than it is on the mac, which is to say, it works at all.
This isn't to mention plugins like ndiswrapper that can make windows drivers work in linux, because.. well... I'll get back to that.
I personally think linux should embrace that middle ground, at least for the time being. Put out faqs on what hardware is known to be badly supported (wiki style, anyone? that way it can be updated as needed?) so people can make the choice about if they want to switch based on if their systems would actually work.
Personally, though, I think the criticism of linux should go beyond "it doesn't work" and go to nit picking parts of it. I mentioned ndiswrapper. It's a tool that's supposed to make windows drivers work natively in linux, but getting the thing to work properly is frustrating, at least. A more intuitive method of doing this, allowing windows drivers to work natively, would at least be a patch to the problem until the native drivers could be figured out. That could be viewed as selling out, but what the hell. I won't care. My wifi card will work. The same holds true for Wine, the windows "emulator". It'd be a great tool, but it's buggier than most alpha software I've tested. Hell, Itunes doesn't even work on it, which means I can't make my ipod touch work unless I load back into the windows side of my pc.
I think we've come to the crux of the issue. It's easy to say "it doesn't work" and many sites out there do that. The term Luser has come up from more than a few anti-linux sites to describe someone who's taken a fondness for the operating system. Freetard has been mentioned, too. They all bash the whole os without seeing what it has to offer. That is not criticism.
Would you read a movie review that just said "no, it was bad. The plot sucked. I didn't like the actors" and get anything out of it? How about a restaurant review that said "the pizza was bad" without mentioning anything about how the toppings were cooked or what specifically was wrong with the pizza or even where you bought it? There are over 1000 distros of linux, each with distinct features. That's easily 10 times the number of pizza places in my city.
I think it needs critics in the traditional sense. People who pick it apart and point at the good, and find the specific bits of bad, for different parts of it. Linux is so broad and varied that you can't really review it in any other way.
Consider, as an example, the Mac. The mac os doesn't really work with ANYTHING but mac hardware, unless you're either really great at research and following directions, or reverse engineering drivers. It's still got a huge section of the market, though, because it's an alternative to the big doom-machine that is microsoft. Linux, to me, is an option b to this. When you don't want to spend the money on the more expensive apple hardware, but you want a choice of not using microsoft's operating system (which is buggy, as well, and more virus prone) you then turn to linux. It's the in between, because a lot of hardware is spotty on linux, but a lot less spotty than it is on the mac, which is to say, it works at all.
This isn't to mention plugins like ndiswrapper that can make windows drivers work in linux, because.. well... I'll get back to that.
I personally think linux should embrace that middle ground, at least for the time being. Put out faqs on what hardware is known to be badly supported (wiki style, anyone? that way it can be updated as needed?) so people can make the choice about if they want to switch based on if their systems would actually work.
Personally, though, I think the criticism of linux should go beyond "it doesn't work" and go to nit picking parts of it. I mentioned ndiswrapper. It's a tool that's supposed to make windows drivers work natively in linux, but getting the thing to work properly is frustrating, at least. A more intuitive method of doing this, allowing windows drivers to work natively, would at least be a patch to the problem until the native drivers could be figured out. That could be viewed as selling out, but what the hell. I won't care. My wifi card will work. The same holds true for Wine, the windows "emulator". It'd be a great tool, but it's buggier than most alpha software I've tested. Hell, Itunes doesn't even work on it, which means I can't make my ipod touch work unless I load back into the windows side of my pc.
I think we've come to the crux of the issue. It's easy to say "it doesn't work" and many sites out there do that. The term Luser has come up from more than a few anti-linux sites to describe someone who's taken a fondness for the operating system. Freetard has been mentioned, too. They all bash the whole os without seeing what it has to offer. That is not criticism.
Would you read a movie review that just said "no, it was bad. The plot sucked. I didn't like the actors" and get anything out of it? How about a restaurant review that said "the pizza was bad" without mentioning anything about how the toppings were cooked or what specifically was wrong with the pizza or even where you bought it? There are over 1000 distros of linux, each with distinct features. That's easily 10 times the number of pizza places in my city.
I think it needs critics in the traditional sense. People who pick it apart and point at the good, and find the specific bits of bad, for different parts of it. Linux is so broad and varied that you can't really review it in any other way.
