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Re: Why is linux not popular
- To: Boris Gorelik <bgbg(at-nospam)md.huji.ac.il>
- Subject: Re: Why is linux not popular
- From: "Nadav Har'El" <nyh(at-nospam)math.technion.ac.il>
- Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 00:49:21 +0300
- Cc: linux-il(at-nospam)linux.org.il
- Delivered-To: linux.org.il-linux-il@linux.org.il
- Hebrew-Date: 1 Elul 5761
- In-Reply-To: <01081921431601.04788@amiram2.md.huji.ac.il>; from bgbg@md.huji.ac.il on Sun, Aug 19, 2001 at 09:42:54PM +0300
- References: <01081921431601.04788@amiram2.md.huji.ac.il>
- Sender: linux-il-bounce(at-nospam)cs.huji.ac.il
- User-Agent: Mutt/1.2i
Sorry for feeding the trolls...
On Sun, Aug 19, 2001, Boris Gorelik wrote about "Why is linux not popular":
> 1. Until Linux is not _TRULY_ layman friendly, it has no chance in the
> battle with MS-Windows and even with Mac-OS. I use RH7.1 and (with all my
Hmm... Whose priority is it exactly for Linux to take over the world?
I want Linux to be usable for all those who want to use it, but I don't
really care for Linux to mutate into some sort of free version of Windows
just so it could take over the world.
> Look what mulix wrote as an answer on <gnubies-il@yahoogroups.com>:
>
> >the simplest way would probably be to hack the sys_execve() syscall in
> >the kernel, to fail unless requested by root. note that this will
> >probably render your system useless (for example, any process that
> >*drops* priviledges will fail), without extensive hacking.
> These lines where taken from <gnubies-il@yahoogroups.com>.
> Well, it's like telling little child about sex through the central dogma of
> protein translation and molecular biology.
> (sorry, mulix ;-) )
Why do I have the feeling that if you had asked the same question (you didn't
tell us what it was) in a Windows newsgroup, your replies would look
like one of
1. It's *IMPOSSIBLE* to do that.
2. Ask Microsoft to fix it - only they can possibly do it.
3. There's some guru who disassambled Windows - maybe he can help you.
I.e., you will be left with your question unanswered?
So someone asks what (I assume) is a complicated issue and gets answered
with something which might work (albeit it's a bit complicated). What is
so wrong with that, may I ask?
Just compare this to vehicles: if the breaks in your bicycle wear out, you
can quite easily change them yourself. Now, what if the breaks in your car
wear out? Will you change them yourself? You can, but you'll have to know
a complicated procedure how to take them apart, fix it, and put it all back
together - because if you don't do it correctly, I wouldn't want to be in
the car with you the next time you drive downhill...
Does the fact that cars have "complicated problems with complicated answers"
make them worthless, not user friendly, or whatever? I don't think so. I'm
glad that my car can be fixed when something goes wrong (not by me - by
mechanics, the automotive equivalent of computer experts), and they don't
tell me in the garage an answer like one of:
1. It's *IMPOSSIBLE* to fix that. Buy a new car without this problem...
2. Ask Renault to fix it - only they can possibly do it.
> I don't know why, (or maybe I do know), but the Israeli popular computer
> press (like Captain Internet) barely remind Linux. Two years ago, I
> wrote Captain Internet and asked them to add a column dedicated to linux, but
> they never answered me.
Who's that Captain Internet anyway? Does he use Linux himself?
I know that if I wrote a computer column, it would be 100% Microsoft free.
Why? Not because I'm an anti-Microsoft zealot, but simply because I don't
use Microsoft products on a day-to-day basis. Similarly, when a guy who only
uses Microsoft Windows writes a column, which OS do you expect him to be most
comfortable writing about?
> 2. HEBREW
> I think it would be a good idea if someone release a _READY_ Hebrew enabled
> distro. When I say ready, I mean that user has to be able to read and wright
> Hebrew immediately after the installation (with no need to run scripts,
> change files etc)
Good idea *wink* ;)
> 3. Developers (or: Microsoft conspiration)
> A friend of mine is a computer sciences student in a college (michlala) in
> Tel Aviv. Every student in that college (and in many others) can get freely
> MS-Studio from their library. More than that, they learn programming using
> this package in classrooms. It's like giving free examples of new (or old)
> medicines to doctors (I'm a pharmacist, and believe me it WORKS). Can anyone
> change this?
University studies is about learning about the choices that exist,
learning about the knowledge that is out there - it should not be about
techniques of using specific products.
When I studied Pascal in the Technion (it was a mandatory course for Math
students) they "recommended" some sort of PC Pascal (I don't remember which).
But the teacher never spent a single minute on telling us how to use this
compiler - this was the TA's job. As far as the teacher cared, we could
use some sort of Vax Pascal, if it implemented the same Pascal standard that
the teacher was talking about.
Any university that teaches differently should, well, be avoided. I really
get annoyed when I see universities teach stuff like Microsoft Word, as if
they were Microsoft salesmen.
To take an example from a different engineering profession, I assume that
students of Civil Engineering while studying about the various theories of
building stable structures, also learn about various contemporary commercial
products (types of bricks, mortar, steel beams, or whatever). But studying
those components should not become the emphasis of the corriculum - otherwise
they'll become masons, not civil engineers. Similarly, if you spend your
time studying Microsoft products you'll become a Microsoft support person,
not a software engineer.
--
Nadav Har'El | Monday, Aug 20 2001, 1 Elul 5761
nyh@math.technion.ac.il |-----------------------------------------
Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |Those are my principles. If you don't
http://nadav.harel.org.il |like them, I have others.
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