On Mon, Apr 26, 2004 at 10:30:13PM -0400, Scott Holder wrote: > Incidentally, Linux has been my primary desktop OS for almost a year > now.
I have been using Unix for almost ten years now, and would have trouble living with out it. That doesn't mean that I would suggest that any old Joe would want to use it. Unix systems are designe for people who have a system administrator or who like doing things for themself. > My personal opinion is Linux is ready for two niches - people like me > who are techy and can get down and dirty and fix/configure things if > need be, and the kind of person who does web surfing and e-mail and not > much else. Agreed. I fit into the former niche. My parents fit into the latter. (They run FreeBSD on their home computer. Whenever something goes wrong I login and try to fix it. This is a heck of a lot better than trying to fix things over the phone!) > things don't mysteriously change or degrade That depends. I run a rather traditional unix box, so what you say is true. Unfortunately, a lot of newer applications save state information so things do change and degrade. (Mac OS X is an extreme example of this, where the state for almost everything is saved. It worked okay in the traditional system software, but it is somehow annoying in Mac OS X.) > With KDE/Gnome progressing, and distributions with more config > tools and auto-config capablilty, it's rapidly closing in on the > middle. My first encounter with KDE went something like this: "Oh my God, this computer has been posessed by a snail!" Without taking the time to figure out what had happened, I made a slight tweak to my .xsession file (namely, I created on with the command "fvwm"). I was going to say that this evaluation may not be fair seeming as I haven't used KDE in years, but that wouldn't be true. I tried it on this G4 and it took a generally spry Mac OS X installation and made it as fast as a snail taking an evening stroll through molasses. I don't know how Gnome compares and I'm not willing to try XFCE in a world which thinks KDE is a good thing. I know if I tried tossing a desktop environment on my parent's desktop machine they would simply dispose of the computer. They would end up buying the cheapest computer they could find, and it would probably have that operating system with a weak immune system. There are other problems with KDE as well. The interface is quite busy, and the problem is quite evident everywhere from widget design to the profound number of unlabelled icons. Fortunately, sensible operating systems (Mac OS and more traditional Unix installations) don't suffer from this problem. And the configuration panels are a hell hole. Compare the Preferences in Safari to those in Mozilla. If you understand what each and every option in Mozilla does, I'll call you an accomplished computer user. If you know what half of them do, I would say that you are still above average. Now imagine applying that degree of complexity to the entire system rather than a single application. Does your average user care about the style of widgets when they want their Internet connection to work? Doubtful. Byron. -- MaX-list is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... / Buy books, CDs, videos, and more from Amazon.com \ / <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/lowendmac> \ Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> MaX-list info: <http://lowendmac.com/linux/max.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/max-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
