You need to get over the 1337 thing. The only thing worse than listening the 1337 teenage crap is hearing people whine that linux users are just script kiddie hackers.

It is exactly my point that grandma, a consumer, is using Windows, a consumer level operating system and has no reason to move to linux. For distros to try to win her over by putting out bloated, "desktop" oriented releases does nothing to make her want to use linux, and does not help the real users who count on it being a useful tool. Let Windows and Mac fight over the desktop, they can have it. People who use linux on the desktop know how to use it, use it for a reason, and don't need the bloat.

Then is she at home using unix? Can she set up her wireless interface with that command line? Or even GUI? Most (all?) serious computers back then ran multi-user, probably even better than Unix. A few of them are still around today, and are probably still better than Unix. The ones that have survived did it by not porting to consumer level hardware, throwing on a crap GUI and competing with established consumer level operating systems.

My point was there is a tool for every job, and we have Windows and Macs for consumer level requirements. I don't want to see Linux bogged trying to support all hardware and all users for all situations to the point it becomes a useless tool for serious users.

I've always thought the strength of linux was the fact it was "not for everyone," and unlike everyone else here I am not looking forward to the day my grandma can use it. That's what Windows and Mac are for. The year of the linux desktop happened when I started using linux as a desktop, and when a person needs it, they'll use it too. Stop competing with Windows, that's what the Mac is for.

Unix and Linux is for people who know what they are doing. It's a tool, not an experience. I do not want a "desktop" distro and a "server" distro. Leave it like FreeBSD where I can build a server or desktop with the same OS. If I wanted a server version and a dozen workstation versions I'll stick with Windows.

I had a professor who best described Unix as "a tool by professionals, for professionals." Personally I'd prefer to keep it that way.

The university did fail by offering a useless degree. Where I went to school, "Information Technology" is where all the Comp Sci dropouts wound up.

Think for a moment what would happen if students didn't have to pay back loans until they found a job in the field they were trained for. (I know, loans don't come from the schools themselves, but play along)

1. They would raise admission standards so that 2.7 students don't get in. Go to a Community College and get your shit figured out before you blow 70k on a "I.T." degree. Hell she'd been better off just getting an MCSE.

2. They would eliminate useless degrees like Information Technology, Sociology...hell, most social sciences. I'm not saying social sciences are completely useless, but really, how many people go into psychology confusing it with psychiatry.

3. Schools really would offer better job placement services.

Principal Skinner: It's already wiped out the dodo, the cuckoo and the nene. And it has nasty plans for the booby, the titmouse, the woodcock and the titpecker.

I was working on some home projects a few years ago while searching for a job. While setting up OpenBSD on my machine, I noticed that the mirror was an ISP in my city. Of course I checked out their website, saw job openings and applied. I told them this story during the interview, which lead to discussions to the projects I was doing on my own time, which lead to a job offer.

I wound up turning the position down for another one, ironically a few blocks away from them, for a company that uses them as an internet provider! So now I had a contact in the ISP, and they had one inside my fairly large company (me). Win-win situation.