[KLUG Advocacy] A nice 'lemon' article

[Adam Tauno Williams]

> > > > Just in case you thought that wonky Linux bashers were on the way out, 
> > > > I found this gem (supposedly about VMware) while baby sitting a CRM
> > > > import.
> > > > http://www.sdtimes.com/cols/javawatch.htm
> > > > Title: "Schizophrenic Development"
> > > I sometimes wonder if these articles aren't written with the intention of
> > >  generating hate mail to his in-box and traffic to his web site.
> > Perhaps,  but I read the paper copy. (Die trees, Die!)  :)  
> > I suspect these guys really fancy themselves experts on everything  (Why
> > else would a Java developer writing about VMware and who uses Visio (I
> > mean, Gaccck!) write about by whom the Linux desktop is designed (or not
> > designed)).
> Actually, he makes some good points, but buries them in chaff. While his
> DHCP gripe is demonstrably false (I mean, geeze, it defaults to DHCP
> network setup in the INSTALLER!), his conclusion is actually good, and I
> can cite a much better example of a show-stopper bug: SuSE 9.1 ships
> with a broken video player. Not only does it TELL you it won't play
> DVDs, but it seems incapable of playing video at all! That IS a killer
> for a consumer OS these days.

No arguements on the video player front; that is all just way too hard. 
I'm left scratching my head at certain points while trying to install
the *&@# thing, and I've been doing this for awhile.  (Hopefully this
gets better in SuSe 9.2 since multimedia is built into GNOME 2.6;  but
just wait for the claims of "Bloat!").

> Application availability is still an issue, too, though perhaps not
> quite the killer Mr. Holub would have us believe. Visio's actually a
> pretty solid package with features I'd LIKE to see in OODraw. For that

Since he is a developer I assumed he was talking about doing UML
diagrams.  Nobody makes UML diagrams in Visio, well some people do, but
other people snicker at them.  Thats like writing a novel in Wordpad.

> matter, the Linux side's still a ways off from a vector package of Corel
> Draw's or Adobe Illustrator's ability, although OODraw comes close. I've
> seen nothing that comes anywhere near filling AutoCAD's niche, either.

Yep, the lack of a decent CAD package is still surprising.  (But at
least the UniGraphics kernel has been ported, so maybe someday, for
those with thousands of dollars).

The best collection of CAD links:
http://www.tech-edv.co.at/lunix/CADlinks.html

If you find one that doesn't suck, let me know.  Around here in
tool-n-die land this is a big deal.

> All that said, I have to agree that he's mostly blowing hot air, drawing
> far too broad a conclusion with next to nothing in the way of tangible
> evidence, his one direct complaint being WRONG... You know, I'd almost
> bet he skipped through his firewall settings on his one and only
> installation, forgot to open his DHCP port, and decided the built-in
> firewall was a BUG, not a feature.

But he said it was a KERNEL bug;  I suppose that could mean firewall
configuration, but what a stretch.
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