Re: [tlug] Am I the last to know?

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

On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 10:16 PM, Scott Robbins <scottro@example.com> wrote:

> Desktops are changed, though
> both Fedora and Ubuntu tend to tie system functions to a particular
> desktop--e.g., a Fedora install of openbox brings in all sorts of Gnome
> garbage.

This is in theory a good thing (reusable software components).  The
problem is that people go "oh, that feature would be nice" and just
"#include <feature.h>" rather than making it an configure option.
(Maybe a little more fair would be to say that often these feature
dependencies cascade over a network of dependencies, and it's just too
complex to try to compute a minimal feature set to support, say,
transparent windows or dbus.)

The problem is that with the number of features growing exponentially
and the number of CPU seconds per second that are actually usable by
these programs growing linearly (at best), you end up with bloat
perceivable as slowness.  (Program bloat as a space constraint isn't
really a problem at the OS level any more, not with 1TB disks
available for $75 or so.  Maybe for heavy gamers, but I don't consider
games part of the OS. :-)

> So, let's focus on the desktop while wireless and printing are still far
> more problematic than it should be.

Indeed.  Except on Mac, which I suppose is using proprietary drivers
as a crutch, CUPS really sucks.  I don't have a lot of problems with
wireless (except remembering the 26-hex-digit randomly-generated
password for my WLAN that only gets used when I install new hardware
about once every 6 months).

But I don't think you can blame Ubuntu or GNOME for that.  AFAICT, the
real problem is that Epson and Canon release only crippleware for
FLOSS OSes.  (Yes, I've used the source, Luke, and even a quick look
made me puke.  Magic numbers everywhere, no docs, don't check status
returns or assert non-NULL pointers, I could go on but this is the
Disney Channel and children might be watching, right?)  HP's drivers,
OTOH, have always worked fine for me, and 3rd-party drivers for HP
(hello, Ghostscript!) usually work pretty well, too.  Even upgrades of
HPLIP don't break my system and I get a high quality test page without
tweaks.  But who (besides the Japanese taxpayer) can afford HP gear
with the features that a 2-man-en Epson gives you?

> The fact that Mr. Shuttleworth even has to waste time defending Ubuntu
> is one reason why this won't be the year of the Linux desktop either.

Desktop is hard work (aka "requires paid developers"), and even
Monsieur Shuttleworth can't afford to pay enough to match the
investments that took Apple and Microsoft 30 years (ie, counting from
the run-up to the wonderful halftime ad of SuperBowl XVIII) to amass.

True, copying is possible, but it may not be legal, and anyway I'm
sure Mark has as much pride as the next guy! ;-)