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Re: [Sheflug] Help - CDROM
>>>>> "Ian" == Ian Wright <Ian [at] iw63.freeserve.co.uk> writes:
Ian> Many of the distros I've tried are either too difficult for
Ian> me to install or are so bland and uninspiring that I can't be
Ian> bothered to fight with them. At the same time, whilst there
Ian> are a multitude of apps for linux, most of them are so
Ian> 'functional' and dull that there is little to inspire a new
Ian> user.
This is why Bill Gates is a billionaire. He put together a company
that spends hundreds of billions on attention to these details. While
Windows 95 was buggy as hell, and they released it knowing that, not
only did they double their internal 800/free dial support lines, but
they also leased as much capacity again from companies like DEC,
Compaq, and EDS.
I love Linux. I will not use anything but free software, and I don't
see any point in paying for it.
But I don't see how a company like Mandrake can make money _without_
either free riding on the open source movement, or finding a
proprietary hook to create a monopoly on something. You cannot pay
for the flashy stuff that really works, and the 800 lines, without a
_lot_ of money.
For the foreseeable future, I will not live within a distance that I
can reasonably support my mother. I can't in good conscience
recommend that she use any Linux. MS Windows does everything she
needs at a price she can afford, and her local vendors support the
warranties. Proprietary software has a place in the world. I'll do
what I can to limit that, but I've seen nothing to convince me that
the free software movement can replace Microsoft or even EDS (which is
a whole nother kettle of fish, and a much easier target).
Ian> I don't know whether this kind of uninformed end-user view is
Ian> of any interest to people like you 'at the sharp end' but
Ian> writing it has been good therapy for me ;o)
I think I speak for most people on this list and on other lists I
participate in as well when I say it's of great interest to me.[1] I
would love to see a lot more open source for the masses.
But as someone who has spent most of the last two months being
vilified on devel lists when I suggest that programmers have a
responsibility to document their code, I just don't think it's in the
cards. Making things easy for non-programmers to use is _work_, and
most open source developers expect to get paid for that.
Ian> - I'll now go and have yet another try at getting CMN and
Ian> MUP to work (music writing programs I've been fighting to get
Ian> working for most of this week without any success!)
If they're linux-based, tell us about it. We may not use those
programs ourselves, but we've probably seen similar user interface and
API/ABI idiocies millions of times.
The worst that can happen is that the thread dies with your post.
Bandwidth waste? No more than all the HTML crap we get, which I've
noticed you don't produce despite using a Microsoft MUA---you're way
ahead of the game! And it will get archived, and become available to
other people that way. Maybe one of them will help you, or maybe
they'll contact you and you can help them. Or someone on the list
will have a friend with a similar problem and elect _you_ "expert." ;-)
Footnotes:
[1] I also know people who think Linux is nearly as dangerous as an
automobile, and you should have to take a test and get and operator's
license to install it. :-)
--
University of Tsukuba Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences Tel/fax: +81 (298) 53-5091
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