From: Jared Stevens Organization: Lineo Inc. To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Subject: Re: MICROSOFT has Bought Over Linus Torvalds!! Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2000 15:31:01 -0600 X-Mailer: KMail [version 1.0.21] Content-Type: text/plain References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: <00040515484001.06764@sparky.lineo.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com > >> Mandrake is cheaper. > > > >The distributions are free if you have a really fast modem or a lot > >a patience. (Or a good friend with both. ) other wise don't be > >suprised if you have to fork over $30-50 for a good distribution. > I found Mandrake for $10 at Office Depot (or was that Staples?). Pretty good deal. > >> So you think the GNOME desktop will take "a long time" to get good? > >> Try HelixCode's GNOME distribution; it may change your mind. > > > >It's not the GUI, in my opinion, that makes linux hard to use. KDE and Gnome > >are very easy to use and navigate. It's setting the dumb thing up. > > Or buying it preinstalled. BTW, how hard is it to set up Windows > from the Windows CD on a machine with a blank hard drive? Windows 95 is a massive pain to install... (almost harder + trickier than Linux) When I installed, for some strange reason, it didn't install CD-Rom drivers, and so when it 'boots windows for the first time' and is trying to install all of these drivers, my CDROM doesn't work, and I can't install anything. Also, if you have a 350 mhz processor or faster, windows wont boot at all until you update some files. Windows 98 was just a pain to install. I had it crashing for odd reasons, on 1 of 4 machines. This was really great. I'm not sure of windows 2000, never used it before. > >Linux wont have the PnP support that windows has for another year > >(minimum). (Where you can plug something in, turn it on, and have > >a thing come up that configures the device and prompts for a driver disk) > > Red Hat 6.1 does autodetect some hardware during boot. That's how it > found my serial modem. Wow. I didn't know about that. > >Installing software isn't as easy as it is in Windows either. > >Usually you have to download an RPM and install it. > > How is that so hard? If your finder is properly configured, *.rpm > will be associated with `rpm -u' or something by default. I think you're right here too. I use KDE and the file manager thing autodetects the file type. I never really use the file manager so I didn't know about this one. > >It doesn't sound that bad to you and me, but your grandma that > >uses her computer to write letters would call it a nightmare. > > My grandma (C_____ Yerrick) could easily (after one session with me) > start the computer, log in, start Netscape, log into her webmail > account, click "compose", type the recipient's email, type her letter, > and click "send". > > Then she clicks "log out," and she is given the choice to log out to > gdm or to shut down the computer. Sorry, but when I wrote 'your grandma that uses her computer to write letters' I meant that your grandma, who probably doesn't do a whole lot of technical things, (like write software, or do 3D rendering or something) would probably have a rough time installing software with RPM or tar. > >> Then set up GNOME and gdm with "users can shut down the computer" > >> access, and give them an account on your box. > > > >It's not the same... they'd have to use software other than > >MS word or Corel office (unless they want to pay for another copy). > > Applixware and StarOffice are freebeerware IIRC. But they would still have to learn the new interface. > >That means they will have to learn the new interface and all > >the other stuff. It shouldn't take too long, but the general > >family's eyes, if its not broke, don't fix it. > > Shouldn't BSOD be enough to convince them that it is broke? I don't know what BSOD means. > >> >Some companies should start develop games over Linux. > > > >I agree. The guys who made Civilization kind of got the idea. > > > >> In fact, it's easier. The Allegro library for Windows has a much > >> cleaner API than DirectX, and Allegro works on DOS and Linux too. > >> So write your wingame with Allegro and recompile it on Linux. > > > >In some ways. If you use allegro, you have to either distribute your source > >code and have people compile your game on their machine. ( Which is not a fun > >experience, and not a wonderful way to distribute a commercial game either. ) > > RPMs can automatically compile and install a game. Yes, but, for example, my linux distribution didn't come with a some of the libs that allegro uses to do graphics. > >Or come up with a massive list of precompiled configurations for > >your game. ( Which is near impossible, and impractical. ) > > Or distribute Allegro in an RPM along with your game CD. Let's see... > doubleclick install, it pops up a terminal running a shell script > rpm -U alleg* > rpm -U quarter-life* > To play this game, open a prompt and type > quarter > and press Enter. > > >What you would have to do is make your own libs, or buy/borrow > >someone elses, and have them all compiled into your program > >except stuff like libc and the standard X-libs. > > Allegro can be statically linked too. > > >I guess the way I see it is, Windows is probably the best end user OS, (other > >than MacOS) out there. > > Mac OS at least doesn't mix DLLs from different versions of the OS. > This is at the heart of what makes Windows unstable. > > >It is easy to use, and easy to configure. hen you are n end user, > >it isn't a priority to have your system on 24/7. Therefore, it is > >only an inconvinience when your machine crashes. > > When your machine crashes and takes with it the game you've been > playing for eight hours, you call that a mere "inconvenience"? Yea, but what I meant was that you don't loose $12 million a day when your machine locks up. This goes for WIN NT 4 also. Windows NT makes a horrible server. -- Jared Stevens