the biggest problem i've found with Linux is the lack of drivers. also GPL has restrictions on shipping non-open drivers so one has to go and find them. patent laws prevent reverse engineering drivers.<br><br>thushara<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Sep 12, 2009 at 1:34 PM, Andrew Beyer <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:beyer.andrew@gmail.com">beyer.andrew@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="im">On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 12:13 PM, Joe moo <<a href="mailto:starquestnerd@gmail.com">starquestnerd@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> One of the reasons Linux is not as popular as it should be in my<br>
> opinion is inconsistencies. It is good to have many different<br>
> options(distros) especially for Power Users (like myself) and<br>
> Developers. However, the problem with that is all of the<br>
> inconsistencies between them, this is a big issue for end users and is<br>
<br>
</div>I won't argue that it isn't an issue, but I fail to see how you could<br>
resolve all the inconsistencies without sacrificing most of the<br>
benefits of having the variety in the first place. There are things<br>
that _should_ be consistent, where consistency does not meaningfully<br>
impact people's choices, but most of them already are...POSIX, LSB,<br>
<a href="http://freedesktop.org" target="_blank">freedesktop.org</a>, and others have already resolved most of the<br>
low-hanging fruit here. I think the things that they haven't<br>
approached or haven't succeeded in standardizing are mostly those<br>
where by mandating a standard you take away choices people want to be<br>
able to make.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> probably why the end-user market doesn't extend much farther than<br>
> netbooks.<br>
<br>
</div>Major hardware vendors marketed netbooks with linux to a general<br>
audience. That hasn't happened on the same scale for any other class<br>
of hardware (at least any comparable to a pc -- I'll ignore more<br>
deeply embedded devices for the moment), so I don't think its really a<br>
valid comparison. The vast majority of people use the os that ships on<br>
their computer and are unlikely to switch...many don't know they can.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> I believe that it is time to set some standards for all of<br>
> the projects out there; standards that can be agreed upon and followed<br>
> by the majority of projects.<br>
<br>
</div>Lots of people have tried...good luck.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> is because Windoze has an architecture<br>
> that most applications follow<br>
<br>
</div>I'm going a bit off-topic here, but I'd take issue with that. For a<br>
single entity, Microsoft can put out an amazing and bewildering array<br>
of related and overlapping technologies with the attending<br>
inconsistencies and incompatibilities. The core win32 api is<br>
relatively clean and consistent, but is pretty much comparable to what<br>
posix offers...not enough of a standard to build on from scratch. I<br>
think .NET alleviated, if still not resolved the issue. But<br>
particularly before then, writing a significant application on windows<br>
involved a fair bit of black magic making Win32, MFC, ATL, COM, COM+,<br>
ActiveX, the VB runtime, et. al. cooperate unless any one of them<br>
provided everything you needed, and you didn't interact with any other<br>
software that used any of the others.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> WX is one of the greatest examples of a simple cross<br>
> platform architecture<br>
</div>> ...<br>
<div class="im">> One solution to that is the<br>
> pitifully unused but amazing autopackage framework!<br>
<br>
</div>Both technologies which, even if you can argue their technical<br>
superiority to other options, are already uncommon/underrepresented.<br>
Try to build a standard on that, and you get a "standard" on paper<br>
which no one conforms to. Adoption has to come before standardization<br>
unless you just want to put out well intentioned documents, or can<br>
force people to comply.<br>
<br>
If you really think these are the solution, your task isn't<br>
standardization, it's advocacy... you need to convince people to adopt<br>
them. Get a modern and full-featured web browser and office suite to<br>
adopt WX as their gui platform. (if you suggest this on the mozilla or<br>
<a href="http://oo.org" target="_blank">oo.org</a> lists, please don't cc me on the resulting flamefest :) Get<br>
everything (or some significant subset) in Ubuntu's universe or<br>
multiverse (or some other sufficiently large set of software) packaged<br>
as an autopackage file, and publish a central collection somewhere.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> Linux needs to stick to a standard that users can follow if it is to thrive!<br>
<br>
</div>Does it? Why should every distribution that happens to use the same<br>
kernel also make all the same choices and trade-offs in userspace? If<br>
you want a consistent set of choices already pre-made for you, why<br>
not just stick with windows? Or choose a single linux-based distro and<br>
use the software packaged for it? If you want to make your own set of<br>
choices, what makes you think they will be any more generally<br>
appropriate for everyone else than the ones various distros have made?<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> PS. No I'm not putting down Linux I'm just suggesting new ideas!<br>
<br>
</div>And I'm not putting down your ideas, but there have never been a<br>
dearth of people with ideas of how linux should "standardize",<br>
particularly when said standard would include their favorite bits of<br>
software. I'm not saying that there aren't huge improvements to be<br>
made in many areas, but I think the solution is to develop and/or<br>
spread the better software, not to rhapsodize on the merits of it<br>
being declared a standard.<br>
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