Gilboa Davara wrote on 2003-06-24: > On Tue, 2003-06-24 at 14:40, Eli Billauer wrote: > > Since the Linux for masses issue is up again, here's my little food for > > thought: > > > > What's wrong with the situation as it is? > > > > What's wrong with Linux not being in every home? Why do we care if our > > grandmother pays for her operating system? > > > > There are, of course, a few things that I would like to have changed. > > For example: > > > > * M$ Word documents being a common way to distribute papers. But that's > > wrong even in itself, since Word isn't even self-compatible across versions. > > * Young computer fans not knowing about Linux, thus missing their > > opportunity to get a good environment to learn from. > > * Lack of drivers for some hardware. > > > > More, anyone? Can we be focused on the things we want changed, rather > > than making other people miserable by convincing them to install an OS > > that they can't handle? > > > Here's a couple. > > A. Development tools and workplaces: > Low adaptation gives MS power to dictate *bad* (non)standards. MS-Word > is not the real problem here; MFC, DirectX, Visual Basic, C#, etc are! > As developers we are forced to use non standard closed tools and > libraries that can be changed without notice by Microsoft. While for now > most of us can avoid the problem, how much time do we have till we are > forced to write MFC under C#? (Instead of C under Linux/posix?) > You seem to forget the MS is not only targeting Linux... it is targeting > the Open Source concept. > But open-source developers always choose their own tools. We had djgpp, now cygwin / mingw, python, perl... If you are talking of managers who know better than the developers, that's tough - but is not specific to MS tools. I don't see the threat here, developers are the last people to use bad tools.
> B. Non standard shared Web-sites: > At least half of the sites in Israel don't work right under Mozilla. > (ynet, walla, etc) Why? cause they are using non-standard IE-only > extensions. Christ, even the Linux forum in ynet cannot be read using > Mozilla... I talked to the forum admin and nada... zilch. > That Haaretz site with the response uses visual hebrew, with embarrassing line wrap. I presume it was made with windows tools ;-). Yep, the web standards situation is really bad in Israel. > C. Windows only access to ISPs: > Anyone who've were part of the cable modem tests will know what I mean. > Some ISPs used l2tp instead of the "normal" pptp during the test. Small > problem: there was no l2tp package back then. I talked to the ISP and > there was no-one there that even knew what I the hell I was talking > about! Luckily I found a l2tp source that I could adapt to my needs. > Anyone here sees any sane ISP doing the same to Windows users? > True. Putting our money with the few ISPs that have linux clue should change this sooner or later. > And a personal one: > D. Games!!! God dangit! I want to play HL2 under Linux! > Loki, Loki, where are you? -- Beni Cherniavsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "Reading the documentation I felt like a kid in a toy shop." -- Phil Thompson on Python's standard library ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
