FYI, some years ago I was pretty enthusiastic about it. All those FSF's "freedom" ideas sounded reasonable, juggling software bits was still interesting, and I spent endless nights compiling LFS. But then I became older, and after trying for three days to make my laptop's WLAN adapter work, I abandoned that, I thought, piece of shit. Then I've read a few holywar threads, saw feet-eating Stallman, and completely decided that I hate Linux.
Now I installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix on my FS Amilo Mini Ui 3520, and guess what? It not as bad as I thought! Optimized user interface perfectly fits small screen, performance is much better than XP or (good hackintosh, of course) Mac OS X, and software pieces are well integrated into each other.
But of course, there is a lot of what I call "OSS plague", consequences of low coordination. Dependency graph is overcomplicated, and every program (even specific kernel parts) in distribution has its own developers, maintainers and testers. Because of that, a lot of rough places emerge when it comes to programs interaction. For example, Karmic installer asks for my keyboard layout, I choose Russian, and after starting installed system I see THREE layouts in two groups: US and US,RU. Alt+Shift switches between all of them, and there is no indicator in the taskbar.
Seen all that, I think that for now Linux made GIANT leap towards usability, but, as always, it won't last over the next tech progress turn. Of course, unless somebody will fork all projects and start to develop entire system in single well-coordinated company.
Hey, Google, we're looking at you!
Linux is some sort of Mathematics abstraction.
ReplyDeleteIt will become better and better through the time,
but it will never be as good as we expect.
If someone would say that Linux is good,
it won't be linux that day.
That applies to any software product, every single one has its own flaws.
ReplyDeleteLinux is somehow different - everlasting bug-fixing struggle causes new features to be released as stable only after they've been successfully implemented, tested and put in production in commercial software.
In your words, if someone would prove that Linux is more feature-rich than, sorry, "proprietary software", it won't be Linux that day.