>>> On Mon, Nov 14, 2005 at 8:43 pm, in message
<43793D4B.3050700@cox.net>,
evylrobot19@cox.net wrote:
> I was talking with a die- hard M$ tech today about Linux. He
said
> that he has played around with it, but he doesn't think he'll ever
want
> to pursue seriously using it. He said that he knows a lot of people
> that do use it, but he doesn't think it will ever "catch on" for the
> masses. I had to agree with him. To most people, you could hang
> laptops from the ceiling in a haunted house, and it would be creepier
> than a guy with a chainsaw and a hockey mask. From there, if you
take
> away what people percieve to be secure and familiar-- the OS-- they
will
> really freak out. I've been shocked at how many people say to me, "I
> don't even know what Linux is." On SFD, giving away live and install
> cd's was brilliant. I have to tip my hat to every one that was
involved
> with that. If you have handed them a cd and told them that it won't
> affect their computer, they will take it. Hey, free software, good
> deal, right? When they get it home, they will try it. Sooner or
later,
> the curiousity will catch up with them.
> Even so, I don't believe that an entity like Linux will ever take
a
> foothold in the mainstream. For one, it is not a unified entity that
> can have a marketing department, or support centers, or any of the
> things that make people feel like it's okay. (Some of you will
probably
> argue with me on this.) Yes, if I purchase a copy of Redhat or
> Mandriva, it will come with support. But most Linux support comes
like
> the Slug list for the obvious reason that the GPL causes diversity in
> programming. The average user would not consider replacing their
> precious OS with something that a handful of people wrote in their
free
> time, and most people have a hard time thinking of something free as
> useful. That, in a nutshell, is my take on the double- edged nature
of
> free software. I like it (although I'm not really well versed on the
> command line yet.)
>
> -- Michael
Ok...I'll bite on this one.
The myth - my "personal or hobbyist or whatever you want to call it of
point releases" do not come with what I call "support". Sure I have
support of the greater community, but I don't have the luxury of making
a phone call and getting help with a problem immediately. I DO have
support when I purchase an enterprise version of a linux distribution
and what supports it is the unified entity you mention does not exist.
In our (novell/suse) case it's a multibillion $ company.
The "windows singularity" is an oxymoron. There is no way that a
windows singularity could occur (or be sustained) (the subject uses it
as a verb it appears). If you don't know what the hypothesized
singularity is...read
http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix/vinge/vinge-sing.html or simply
search for singularity. What's interesting and quite comical is that the
"singularity" that MS refers to is one that occurs at the center of a
black hole. The "event horizon" is equivalent to MS's SIPs. The problem
with this "theory" and the correlation is that MS will probably allow
"naked singularities because it won't be able to artificially "control"
or provide cosmic censorship to prevent these rogue, uncontrollable
singularities.
No one can predict when or if "the" singularity will occur, but with
amazon's mturk and the google innovation, we are well on our way to
artificial control and really don't want MS to make their attempt for
two reasons 1) we'd be left high and dry when these systems blue screen
constantly (besides the fact that we'd probably die because they would
be running our life support systems) and 2) IF MS could do it, then we'd
be controlled softly by micros...not a pretty site.
Sorry for the long post - it's an interesting subject that has no
business being mixed with micro and soft. I wish I could show you Novell
Linux Desktop 10 alphas - very cool stuff (a lot of which is in SUSE
Linx 10.0 from opensuse.org). I think you will see what you don't think
you will see in the next 12 months.
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