Comment Re:Be afraid... be very afraid (Score 1) 570
>> last thing we need is a dumbing down of Linux to this level!!!>>
>>...which is exactly what will happen if linux is marketed as a desktop OS for first-time Internet users.>>
This is not at all the case. I've seen this permutation of the 'Camel's nose' argument many times in response to suggestions that linux should make in-roads to the desires of end-users. It does not hold water. Linux is unusually capable in being 'all things to all people' because it is only the kernel; the core of the OS. The OS that you build atop that core is limited only by your imagination and dedication.
Apple has demonstrated this principle perhaps most succinctly with MacOS X. They have built a MacOS look/work-alike atop a BSD core; and despite my ideological misgivings, I have to begrudge them some admiration for it.
Linux can be made marketable to end-users by creating a distribution that is designed to be easy for them. The GNOME and KDE projects continue to make progress on this front, along with many window managers. The work by Bastille and other security projects are invaluable to an end-user linux flavour. Many of the resources necessary for a "dumbed-down" distro already exist or are in development. All that's needed is a group with the motivation to make it happen.
Unfortunately, that's not me. (yet) :(
>>linux succeeds because it is a stable, efficient, free unix-based OS that usually comes packaged with lots of stable, efficient, free unix-based software... great for developers and sysadmins who are comfortable with unix commands, config files, compiling software, etc. adding bloatware to make linux friendly to users will undermine the reasons linux became a success. unix was never meant to be warm and fuzzy. it was designed by and for software developers.>>
...and it can be all of those things and end-user friendly. We will still have Debian to satisfy our eccentric desires. These things will not disappear simply because someone makes a desktop market distro. ~_^
"Everything is as it is, and what is, is everything."
>>...which is exactly what will happen if linux is marketed as a desktop OS for first-time Internet users.>>
This is not at all the case. I've seen this permutation of the 'Camel's nose' argument many times in response to suggestions that linux should make in-roads to the desires of end-users. It does not hold water. Linux is unusually capable in being 'all things to all people' because it is only the kernel; the core of the OS. The OS that you build atop that core is limited only by your imagination and dedication.
Apple has demonstrated this principle perhaps most succinctly with MacOS X. They have built a MacOS look/work-alike atop a BSD core; and despite my ideological misgivings, I have to begrudge them some admiration for it.
Linux can be made marketable to end-users by creating a distribution that is designed to be easy for them. The GNOME and KDE projects continue to make progress on this front, along with many window managers. The work by Bastille and other security projects are invaluable to an end-user linux flavour. Many of the resources necessary for a "dumbed-down" distro already exist or are in development. All that's needed is a group with the motivation to make it happen.
Unfortunately, that's not me. (yet)
>>linux succeeds because it is a stable, efficient, free unix-based OS that usually comes packaged with lots of stable, efficient, free unix-based software... great for developers and sysadmins who are comfortable with unix commands, config files, compiling software, etc. adding bloatware to make linux friendly to users will undermine the reasons linux became a success. unix was never meant to be warm and fuzzy. it was designed by and for software developers.>>
"Everything is as it is, and what is, is everything."
