-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Jinks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Wednesday, June 24, 1998 9:52 PM
Subject: Re: Should we be pushing Linux over Windows 95?
>What if (and I won't be surprised if RH does this when the gnome and E
>get a little further along) there were another "specialized version" of
>Linux -- call it "Desktop Linux" -- that maybe came with nicely-tweaked
>GUI settings, all tuned up to feature some productivity apps in a nice
>clickable display fresh out of the box.
Exactly. That's why I said "not in it's present form".
Something like this can and should be done, and (like so many other things
in Linux) we're just this close to having the necessary infrastructure in
place.
It should be done, it probably will be done, but until it's done Grandma is
better off, in measurable terms, with 95/98/Mac.
>could set up RH5.1 (or even 4.2 for that matter -- fdisk isn't _that_
>hard).
I think that for purposes of this discussion, we are pretty much by
definition referring to people for whom fdisk is too much.
> What it would do, though, is take some of the slop out of the
>VAR stage of the game. I think it's generally agreed that marketing is
>a bigger obstacle for us now than usability. If more VAR's could be
>presented with shrinkwrapped boxes that they could blow onto hundreds of
>machines, quickly turning those machines into Grandma-compatible
>desktops without ever having to run vi, they might be less nervous about
>offering Linux.
I'm kind of mixed on this. On the one hand, it would darn sure help us all
out on the hardware-support and first-tier-application support if a bunch of
VARs started dumping Linux on the market.
On the other hand, we don't want Linux to be so easy to install for these
VARs that a bunch of untrained idiots can do it, because if they can they
will. They're doing it with NT now, and they did it with Lantastic before
that.
This is not meant to imply that any VAR who uses Lantastic is automatically
an idiot, people, please don't think I'm implying that. Nor is it meant to
imply that NT is an idiots-only OS. Please recall that I'm administrating a
network of 6 NT Servers even as we speak.
However, those networks that were slopped together by half-ass VARs with
Lantastic all pretty much have one thing in common today; they hate
Lantastic and wouldn't use it again if they were paid to.
We don't want that happening to Linux.
So I'm kind of mixed about it, because as things stand right now a trained,
competent VAR can use Linux. The problem he'll run into is lack of
consistent hardware support.
Say he is pushing HP Vectras. Those are a popular VAR box.
Maybe this week every piece of hardware in them is supported by Linux, but
what do you do if the next model has a video chip built on the motherboard
that doesn't work with anything except Accelerated-X? Add $200 onto your
cost per system?
And what if they have a built-in Ethernet that's not supported at all,
period, anywhere? Promise Donald Becker you'll wash his car every weekend,
and beg him to bail you out?
It's a problem, and there are two solutions to it:
1) The existing Linux-friendly OEMs need to get the word out.
2) The big guns need to support Linux.
Ideally, both of these need to happen. But it's a tough row to hoe; HP and
IBM aren't going to sabotage HP-UX and AIX, respectively, in order to
support Linux.
Dell and Gateway aren't going down that road.
Who's going to fill the gap? Not Compaq, they got bit on the ass with Unix
already.
Sure, you and I would just say "Linux Hardware Solutions" or "Indelible
Blue, Inc." or "VA Research" or one of those great companies (god bless you
every one, boys) but Joe's System Integration and Fried Pies has never heard
of these folks, and more importantly when he walks in the door of the local
companies they have never heard of 'em, either. They've heard of IBM, HP,
Dell, Gateway, Compaq. They may have even heard of Micron and Quantex.
So what needs to happen, in better illustrative terms, is:
1) Compaq needs to support and pre-install Linux.
or:
2) VA Research needs to have boxes on the shelves at Wal-mart. Even if
those boxes only come with Windows 98 on them.
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