[KLUG Advocacy] A User Leaving

[Adam Williams]

>Slashdot has this story about a user leaving Linux and going to expee.
>http://members.optusnet.com.au/~knigits/articles/switched_back.html
>I thought it was pretty level headed and made some good points.  Alot of
>this same thing applies to putting Linux in schools,etc....  I'm curious
>is anyone has any comments.

My comments.....  (late night rant,  waiting for big table to reindex)


1. Distro flopping

He starts out the explanation of his Linux experience with a laundry
list of distributions he tried.  I've noticed that some people seem to
flop between distros like they flip channels on TV.  And these same
people seem to universally end up frustrated.  I just don't get the
psychology/rational behind this behaviour.  Things like "Eventually I
became dissatisfied with Mandrake," and he moves on to Debian.  Why was
he dissatisfied?  Then he compliments Debian on how he gets to get his
hands dirty and learns alot.  Then he is frustrated with Debian, and
between the stable/unstable versions.  Huh?  So he goes on the Mandrake
8.1....  I don't get it.

2. X11

"My experience with X is that it's too big, bloated, slow and unstable
to be any good to the home user."

Is this a general experience?  He later states how snappy things like
window moves are on XP.  I use X remotely at home and on an 'old' box
and home and *never* wait for widgets to paint, etc...  So I just
haven't experience this.  

"Most crashes that I ever experienced with Linux have been X's fault. My
servers don't run X, and they never crash."

This is true.  But video drivers make the same rule apply to M$, but
there I can't turn them off.

"Fonts are truly awful under X."

The font mechanism is a pain.  But I think he left Linux must a little
too soon in this case.  Real solutions are almost at this end of the
pipe.

3. Drivers.

Driver support can be a problem.  But most devices I've used "just
work".  I haven't recompiled a kernel is almost a year.

There is already a mechanism for OEMs to distribute binary only fairly
portable drivers.  They choose not too.

4. Hardware setup

He seems to think this works pretty good,  and I concur.  RedHat
automatically does the IDE-CDRW + SCSI module loading,  or did on a box
I used.  His "It's an IDE device, it's not that complicated!" comment is
a gross over simplification.

The tools for making CDs do such however.

5. Software distribution.

He didn't look very hard for a solution to this problem.  GnoRPM,
red-carpet, etc...  I don't see how it can get easier than red-carpet.

6. Support

Silly.  You want to avoid jerks, immigrate to Antarctica.  I somehow am
confident he isn't active in any political or religious organs.  This
kind of drivel annoys me.