Re: [tlug] How revolutionary is M2?

[Jonathan Byrne <jq@example.com>]

On Mon, Mar 01, 2004 at 12:25:06PM +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

>Berlin had this pie-in-the-sky idea of using CORBA as the (virtual)
>wire format, but I haven't heard anything about Berlin in several
>years, have to wonder if anything will ever come of it.

They changed the name to Fresco and appear to be not dead yet.  Maybe.

http://www.fresco.org/index.html

>I dunno, Jonathan.  AFAICT for people with those needs, Windows and
>the Mac are adequate, and Linux could be adequate, too, if it weren't
>for the need for bug-compatibility with MSFT Office on MSFT Windows.
>Mac users here regularly apologize for lack of compatibility of MSFT
>Office on Mac-generated files with MSFT Office on Windows.  It's not
>that the most commonly used features are that hard to implement.

It's bad when MS can't even make versions of MS Office on two different
platforms compatible with each other?  I wonder which is more compatible
with MSO on Windows, MSO on Mac or StarOffice/OO.org? :-)

For my wife, the two big things would be installing software (the most
she'd be interested in handling would be clicking it a few times) and
no (good or authorized) voice-supporting Yahoo Messenger client on Linux
(a problem shared by Mac users as well).  Because she married a computer-
literate person, it's just about the applications.  If she had married
someone whose knowledge of computers was on the same level as her own,
it would also be needing toaster-level ease of use for things like
installing software.  I would argue that Debian actually gives you something
like that via apt-get, but others would say that nothing which involves
typing something at the CLI or memorizing even one command qualifies :-p

For people with someone to run the system for them, you are right that
Linux is generally adequate.  It's ready right now as a business desktop 
in most situations.  For home use, even with supervision, there is still
a ways to go in the area of multimedia.

>As far as I can tell, though, email itself is not one of those, and
>there are plenty of email clients (including ones based on Emacs) that
>would satisfy 50% or more of the innocent users with a little training.

Agreed. Several Linux mail clients are as easy to use or easier than
OE, and a lot more reliable.

>will get that when extended attributes for file directories become
>common.  (Maybe I should patentleft[1] the _multi_media thumbnail idea.)

This is actually a very good idea.  If the patent process is too much
hassle, the Sourceforge project as patent-killer idea has great merit.

>Try a Sharp Zaurus.  All the opacity you could want; the notepad tool
>can't even find a README without the .txt extension.  vi, of course,
>has no trouble.  :-)

Gee, that *is* awfully Windows-like ;-)


>If you take the "should" as an ethical imperative, it is _less_ true.
>When was the last time you got spammed by a Linux virus?  When was the
>last time you had to reboot because an app got wedged?  And I don't

This is true, although a misconfigured Linux box may also make a better
platform to take over and use to launch attackes against others, just
because of its stable nature and the relative ease of hiding inside
a multi-user system.  Linux distros, to their credit, have moved to
a much more secure default install than they had in days gone by,
where a typical install had everything turned on and wide open.

>Basic "out" package:

This is good.  I would add the common instant messaging protocols to it,
though.  Having the user specify which ones to allow is an option.

So, when are you going to announce the launch of Turnbullinux? :-)

>Note: webservers and stuff like that are a different matter.  The
>target audience ("Windows is good enough for them") doesn't want them,

SuSE is at least something like this.  The standard boxed set does not
include servers, compilers, etc.  This raises security a bit in that
those things just aren't there and can't be installed even by accident.
The Pro boxed set has the kitchen sink.  AFAIK they are the only 
distributor making that division, and it makes sense.  If a person
never had a compiler or seb server or anything in Windows, and that
was not a problem, chances are pretty good that s/he is not going to need
any of those things in Linux, either.  Not including them keeps sharp
objects away from people in whose hands they could be dangerous.


Jonathan
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