[KLUG Advocacy] Interesting . . .

[Adam Williams]

>>Not that Consolidation isn't important....
>All true! We need to recognize what MS has done well,

And that UNIX, particularly Open Source, has done *VERY* poorly.  Some
of these things are still only now being resolved.  Installing an
application and having it appear on a menu somewhere.  Wow!  What a
novel concept.  GNOME2 is the first UNIX package I've seen that takes a
real stab at this (via vfs instead of KDEs or GNOME1s "stick the file
<here>" method, where ever <here> may happen to be).  But still how many
applications are GREAT until I go to print and I need to ****TYPE IN
"lpr -Php895ps"****!  There is no reliable way to enumerate the printers
on a system!  We still have along way to go.

>in business and 
>product terms, even if we have severe problems with the ethics or practices.
>They have done an effective job of packaging and delivering software in a
>form that most of the populace seems to be able to use. I actually think
>they've done a better job of this than they've done on the software itself.

Yes, it is interesting that (IMHO) Open Source has failed in almost
exactly the opposite way:  obsessive attention to the quality of
discrete packages while manageability, documentation, and any form of
integration get overlooked.

>The lesson everyone can take from this is that it doesn't matter how good
>the software is if it is hard to install. It would be very interesting to
>see how much of the popularity of Linux can be attributed to easier instal-
>lation procedures, which have only been available comparitivly recently.

Exactly.