[wplug] wired resp

[DAVID G MATTHEWS]

>  Therefore it is important to not compare Linux and Windows, for each
> achieve different goals.  Linux will never be the desktop operating system
> that Windows is, so let's stop pretending that it might.  We use Linux to
> develop software, act as a super stable server, whatever.
>
Maybe that's what you use Linux for.  That's not what I use it for.
WRT to the Aunt Tilly factor, no, Aunt Tilly would be lost if you threw
Slack or Debian or probably even RedHat at her.  But I honestly don't
think Mandrake, with its default configuration, and KDE, is any harder to
learn than Windows.  A lot of seasoned Linux users make fun of Mandrake as
being too idiot-friendly or too Windows-like, but that's the point.  It
strikes me as being especially hypocritical when people say that Linux
isn't ready for Aunt Tilly.  No, she maybe lost at a bash prompt, and
she'll never write a perl script, and she'll always use StarOffice instead
of LaTex.  But not all potential Linux users need these things.
But ask yourself how many casual Windows users ever write batch
scripts?  How many actually create their own VB macros?  And let's not
forget that LaTeX is available for Windows as well.  In fact, I think it's
possible to be almost as much a geek in the Windows environment as under
Linux!  I can also say that having recently re-installed both Windows NT
and SuSE 7.2 on my box, Windows was by far the harder and more annoying
install.
Linux's greatest asset, IMHO, is the GPL.  The reason it's a robust,
stable, secure environment is because of the sort of cooperation that
open-source development makes possible.  In these days of increasing
corporate control over every facet of life, and the laissez-faire
attitude towards monopolistic behaviour that the courts are taking, I
think it's important to have a software available which is not controlled
by any one person or entity.  If you don't like Linux as a desktop OS,
don't use it on the desktop.  But I see no reason to confine free software
to the back room.
Here endeth the rant.
-dgm