On Wed, 5 May 2004 12:49:34 -0700 Aron Smith disseminated the following: > > How much easier can it get?! For the majority of users, whose greatest > > demand on their desktop is maybe getting their scanner or digital camera to > > work, we're already there. With products like Xandros and Libranet out > > there, and of course Mandrake, you plonk down 60 or 70 bucks and you've got > > a *fully functional and easy to use desktop* (well, okay, no Shockwave > > <grumble>). > > > > ...as long as these users never have to deal with fscking Sympa...I'll > > never see this, guaranteed, though the archives show all my posts getting > > through.
...hmmm, well, at least I seem to be seeing the replies :-\ > The biggest linux Thorn in my side is MP3 players Linux just can't handle the > propriety file systems We need an OSS standard for this. You bring up a good point. Xandros, Libranet, Mandrake, all the 'not free as in beer' distros, trumpet their ease of use, including their support for proprietary formats like RealOne, Flash, etc. and proprietary software like MS Office and such. Should GNU/Linux even be heading down that path? Esp when there are perfectly useable open formats and standards that could be promoted? Next thing you know you have a distro like Suse, which apparently now installs without any way to play DVD's, telling the user that it's somehow not 'legal' to play DVD's on Linux, yer supposed to buy into some 'licensed' software. Linux starts implementing DRM and such, and I'm off to FreeBSD, man. As RMS put it: "A non-free program is a predatory social system that keeps people in a state of domination and division, and uses the spoils to dominate more. It may seem like a profitable option to become one of the emperor's lieutenants, but ultimately the ethical thing to do is to resist the system and put an end to it." -- JoeHill RLU #282046 / www.orderinchaos.org 17:25:40 up 22 days, 2:26, 9 users, load average: 0.34, 0.21, 0.14 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "Where the state begins, individual liberty ceases, and vice versa." -- Bakunin
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