| ??? 02/12/07 06:46 Read: times |
#132582 - In the last year? Responding to: ???'s previous message |
Craig Steiner said:
That's what I mean about it having been a drag on my productivity. No-one's arguing that Linux can't do everything that Windows does, but it doesn't do them. Jeff Post said:
It pretty much does now. There are specialty applications that haven't and may never be written for Linux, but all the mainstream productivity tools, business and personal, are there. As are many specialty applications. Did that happen in the last year? I never had a decent accounting program; GnuCash didn't cut it. Granted, I don't like QuickBooks either, but it gets the job done. GnuCash was also overkill for personal accounting such as Quicken. So I had to buy Win4Lin so I could emulate Windows in Linux and run my financing programs--because wine didn't work for any of the programs that I tried installing (except for SimCity, ironically). I tried to use SDCC for 8052 development since it worked in Linux, but once again I found myself finding errors in SDCC rather than debugging my own code and had to make code tweaks to get around them. So when I wanted to use Keil that was one more thing I had to run out of my Win4Lin installation. Then I upgraded to Fedora and there was a new version of Win4Lin that absolutely would *not* install with a stock kernel and the Win4Lin people couldn't solve the problem. And my laptop's screen hasn't turned off since I bought that laptop about 4 years ago. One of these days I suppose that LCD lamp is going to burn out. That was about the time I had to buy a new laptop anyway so at that point I found the only reason I was using Linux was the "principle of the matter" in that I did like being "free" with Linux and being able to do whatever I wanted. But I came to the conclusion that being able to do whatever I wanted was coming at the cost of not being able to do things that I actually needed to do. So that's when I retired my laptop Linux installation and made it my home office server which it does a great job as. Craig Steiner said:
And I'm not in the business of writing stuff for Linux and don't have time to do it. When I need an application, that's when I need it--I don't have time to spend weeks writing one. Jeff Post said:
Geez, Craig. Did you think about how that might be (mis)interpreted before you posted? Many in the FOSS community would read it this way: "I'm too busy/important/snobbish to help out, but I sure wanna take what the rest of you schmucks produce, for free of course. Just don't ask me for anything in return." 1. That's an accurate representation of probably 99.95% of the people that use computers. 2. I'm not begging anyone to write this stuff for free. If they do and it works, great, kudos. But if you're expecting everyone who uses Linux to write something for the community then you're going to find Linux only used by programming geeks--which is pretty much an accurate description of the Linux community (though that's finally starting to change). I use an OS to get my work done, not to write or add to the OS. Just because FOSS is the passion of others doesn't make it the passion of everybody, and that doesn't mean the person who doesn't have that passion is too busy/important/snobbish to help out. 3. I'm willing to pay for applications and/or an OS if it works. When I gave up on Linux, I didn't complain to anyone. As you said, I have no right to complain about what I got for free. I just shruggingly moved back to Windows. Craig Steiner said:
I know you've got the talent to contribute, so how else should we interpret your statement? That I'm a professional with 2.5 full time jobs and a wife and I literally don't have time to do everything I'd like to do. So what comes first? My wife, then the 2.5 full time jobs. If I'm lucky, I might have time in the spring/summer for a bike ride or some time to myself. Developing a new app for Linux when I can just buy one for Windows in 5 minutes that is more complete and better tested than what I could write in a month isn't a reasonable choice. Usually when I need an app, it's to get a task done NOW. I can't put that on pause while I spend a month writing the app. My 2.5 clients would be less than happy if I put them on hold for a month to do something I could get done immediately by buying a $40 program. Jeff Post said:
Certainly it's your right to choose to not contribute, but since you could, refusal to do so removes your right to complain. So I respectfully request that whenever you get the urge to knock Linux, you instead remain civilly quiet. I'm not complaining nor knocking Linux. Despite my unsuccessful 2-year attempt to use it on the desktop, it works great as a server and I wouldn't recommend any other OS as a server, ever. I'm simply stating that, based on my experience, Linux wasn't ready for my desktop and that's precisely why I opted out. I didn't have time to deal with it. And I don't think it's unreasonable to share that information with others. Your mileage may vary, of course. Regards, Craig Steiner |
