Re: [SLUG] "My distro beat up your distro" discussion

From: jeff (jdavis70@tampabay.rr.com)
Date: Mon Nov 18 2002 - 13:14:52 EST


David Meyer wrote:
> Good Morning All,
>
> I certainly don't wish to fan the flames, but this discussion has made
> me believe all over again that the one thing that will keep Linux from
> getting where it needs to be in the desktop market is the fighting back
> and forth about distributions, etc.
>
> Now I know that might not be totally accurate, but I am not the only one
> on this list who sees this as a problem as others have talked with me
> about this very thing.
>
> So, to that end, I am curious to know what some of you out there think
> about this. More specifically, what is it that is keeping Linux from
> STRONGLY coming out on the desktop market?

        Better and more accurate hardware detection would help, along with
consistant detection across the distro's. Especially with laptop installs.

EX: Ever install RedHat on a Thinkpad 600? One must jump through hoops
to configure sound and not have it sound like a bad Max Headroom
flashback. Yet Mandrake is based on RH and sound configures correctly
without having to create scripts to load the module,unload the module,
then reload the same module again. To use another flavor in the same
example, Debian goes bonkers trying to figure out what video chipset it
should use, while the Debian based Knoppix automagically configures it
with no problems. I am a firm believer in Linux, but I am not going to
spend the time tweaking a particular distro to work if there is another
distro available that works right out of the box.

        Little things like that are enough to keep the average Windows user from
considering Linux seriously. They don't want to know about the inner
workings of their computer, they just want it to work. Stability is a
meaningless word if the hardware that they spent many hard earned
dollars for doesn't get detected correctly or worse, not detected at all.

        And as long as game coders are insisting that they use DirectX or other
proprietary MS cough"standards"cough in their offerings, gamers are not
going to consider leaving the MS umbrella either. And gamers are a large
part of the reason that PC's became a household item rather than just an
office tool.

        Jeff



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