Re: Linux/Mozilla related Short-Term Contract

[Austin Kurahone <austin@example.com>]

Hi,

On Tue, Oct 03, 2000 at 05:11:42PM +0900, Jonathan Shore wrote:
> it) - nevertheless, I have a business to run.   I can't wait for the
> respective open-source projects to provide exactly what I need, nor am I
> requesting that the proposed work be folded back into any public
> distribution.
Errr when changes arn't "folded back into any public distribution." that's 
what I'd imagine to be a codefork but.....
 
> Which reminds me:  why is it so *damn* hard to get some things working on
> Linux -- there is so much  chaos.  I guess this results from the "democracy"
chaos? All Hail Discordia!

> of software - everyone and his brother writes apps, many of which handle
> aspects of a domain but often are not "complete" and don't necessarily work
> in a complementary fashion with other apps.  I have no problem with this -
> because without this sort of development we might be in worse shape.
There's a reason for this.  It's that "everyone and his brother"(or her
in some cases) often write the apps to accomplish something that _they_ want
and release it to the public  because they feel that others might find
it useful.  They' aren't being paid for this in a lot of cases (yes
I'm painfully aare of this as I sit here and drool over the new Sun 
Blade workstation), and often they also do the project for fun or to scratch
an itch (yes coding can be fun, even though some parts of maintaining a 
freesoftware package are _not_ fun).

> Frankly, multimedia capabilities on linux are still quite primitive and
> fragmented functionality-wise IMHO.  I'll do my part to strengthen this in
> time (will be starting an open-source project related to some multimedia
> capabilities soon).  In the mean time I'll accomplish objectives with a more
> expedient approach.
Linux is not meant for a desktop.  Many will disagree with me on this but
this is my view.  As a coder/sysadmin's desktop maybe, as a replacement
for windows, hell no.  (Damn, the BSD's are looking _really_ attractive
right now).  Also even with the "progress" it made on the desktop it's still 
more geared for servers, yeah it's cool that your server can play videos and
use flash but you don't need it and it's a liability.  Hence the apparent 
lack of progress with multimedia apps.
 
Yours,

-- 
Austin K. Kurahone
Tokyo Linux Users Group / SIGUSR1 R&D
Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!

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