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From: Ian S Nelson <bonovox+@CMU.EDU>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.os.386bsd.misc
Subject: Re: Linux thoroughly insulted by Infoworld!
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 11:49:36 -0500
Organization: Sophomore, Math/Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 69
Message-ID: <Aj8xsU600iUvQ3=FpN@andrew.cmu.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: po4.andrew.cmu.edu
In-Reply-To: <3fqh6a$sl@manuel.anu.edu.au>
Excerpts from netnews.comp.os.os2.advocacy: 21-Jan-95 Re: Linux
thoroughly insult.. by Nathan Hand@bin.anu.edu.
> Are you arguing that *supported* software like MS-Windows *works*? Commercial
What does windows claim to do that it cannot? As far as I know, MS has
made no claims about what windows can do that it does not. It certainly
does not take the fullest advantage of many machines, but it doesn't
claim to. Do you have a problem with the meaning of "work" or are you
trying to point out that windows is designed around old hardware (of
course, it was about 8 years ago...) or what?
> vendors suffer from the limitation of too little input. They have small teams
> (perhaps under 100) working 9-5 with only the very basic experience. Contrib-
> utors to Linux amount to thousands of highly-learned professors, scientists,
> real-world workers, students and home hobbyists (all of them highly-learned).
That doesn't mean much. If you believe that IBM's and MS's development
teams have very limited experience, you are an idiot. From my
experience developing for IBM, their people are well schooled, highly
experienced technical professionals of the highest calibre.
Having 10s of thousands of people working on bits a pieces of linux is
nice for some. If you have the time to install it, the money to get it,
and you know where to look, you can make linux or BSD just a anything
you would want. End users, F500 grunts, and people who actually do work
don't alays have those options.
> I dont find the commercial products nearly as stable as the "unsupported"
> Linux. It was because of massive instability (Windows, 'nuff said), slow
> performance (Windows, 'nuff said) and massive resource requirements
> (Windows, 'nuff said) that I switched. I imagine that many Linux users
> will be the same.
Not to defend windows (damn that would be twice in the same message,
I'll go to net confession) but it is not that unstable. It crashes from
time to time, but I have lost very little data to windows. I've lost
far more to making stupid mistakes a the unix % and I've been using it
for about a decade. And performance is just a prejudice. On two
side-by-side 486s I think the windows performance would be comparable if
not faster than the X window system on linux doing similar tasks. There
isn't really a wealth of ported applications to test this though. It's
all just personal feeling ("linux just feels faster"...)
> Yes you often get the "its your fault" and "rftm" answers on linux groups.
> Often not without cause: Im amazed how often the same question will be asked,
> or a complete novice will ask an obviously un-informed question like "how do
> I run my Windows programs under Linux". Hell, Ive asked some real
clunkers too
This isn't what people pay money for. People pay tech support money so
they don't have to deal with this. It's worth pointing out that there
are a lot more people using OS/2 and windows that will give you the same
level of "support" than there are using linux.
> .
> I dont take the (sometimes rudes) replies to heart though. Just wipe
away the
>
> tears and start learning.
I think this is the crux of the issue: the vast majority of users out
there don't want to, as you say, "start learning" their OS. They just
want to turn on the computer and do their work. Us tech types love to
do it, that's why we program; but the rest do not. And as a programmer
who want to make money, I will try and produce what they do want.
--
Ian S. Nelson <bonovox@cmu.edu> finger for PGP key
Carnegie Mellon Math/Computer Science
My opinions are not the school's, although they should be!