Re: tlug: PJE

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

>>>>> "Chris" == Chris Sekiya <chris@example.com> writes:

    Chris> On Fri, 21 Aug 1998, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
    >> Too bad, could be amusing and educational ;-)

    Chris> *sigh* Okay, against my better judgement:

    Chris> Package managers are evil.

So are knives.  (viz Lorena Bobbit.)

    Chris> How did Microsoft products get so bad?  They didn't used to
    Chris> be terrible -- Word (version two, I think) was a damned
    Chris> fine wapuro.  I think Microsoft discovered that their
    Chris> audience didn't actually care about optimal products.  So,
    Chris> instead of improving their code, they sunk their efforts
    Chris> into expanding their user base by adding possibly unstable
    Chris> features to their code.

True.  Ed Yourdon thinks this is a good thing, in its place.

    Chris> Now Linux distro people appear to be targetting the same
    Chris> audience.  Linux with StarOffice on the desktop.  Linux
    Chris> with Oracle in the server room.  

Also true.  Sort of.  Well, hmm.  Even some Debian people seem to get
infected with that.  Ok, just plain true.

And you have to admit that freeware development branches can be a
bloody mess.  Some of them stay that way until release, too.  And past 
it....

    Chris> We're getting all of the applications that we need to
    Chris> effectively replace NT servers with Linux servers.

    Chris> But we're not getting source code to those applications.

I don't care, I don't use them.

Neither do you.

And you and me (at 5362 and 0xC88E respectively in the cast of
hundreds of thousands, with Linus at #1 and RMS at #0---interpret that
however you want :-P---of course) are Linux.  RH, PHT, Walnut Creek,
Debian, and the FSF are not Linux, we are.  The hundreds of millions
of lusers are not Linux.  We are.  Has Emacs been "dumbed down for the 
masses"?  No, but DJGPP + Emacs (and soon Cygwin + XEmacs) are
creeping across the face of Visual Fingerpainting-land.

And that's where the hope lies.

Even if some of us use package managers.  And even if millions of
lusers use StarOffice.  Sure, somebody can branch system development
if they want, and encrust Linux with a blizzard of proprietary
libraries and applications.  But the core development will have to
stay open.  And people who care will do it.  Not just the kernel, but
the core system management and development applications, too.

And there's also ESR's theories.

Tomorrow, have a nicer day ;-)

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