Re: [tlug] refurbished Thinkpad X60 with Coreboot & Linux

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

Edward Middleton writes:

 > [Unity is] a much better fit for a general purpose computer for
 > most people.

"Most people" don't use general purpose computers.  They use
multifunction appliances.  I think that is (a) sad, and (b) dangerous
to the health of the Japanese economy (any economy, really, but I'm
responsible for Japanese youth, it says so in my contract).  Unity
encourages that.

 > I haven't had problems working my way around ubuntu with unity.

That's *precisely* the issue.  You have to work around the shell,
rather than having it help you get computing work done.

 > > Beavis:  Hey, Butthead, that Unix fragmentation fiasco was fun!
 > > Butthead:  Heh-heh, heh-heh.  Yeah, Beavis, let's do that again!
 > 
 > I would take fragmentation over single vendor.

I would take multiple vendors competing with generally compatible
platforms over either.  X did manage that, however much Jamie et al
(the "Unix Haters" list) might have bitched about it.  Free software
means we can have that for the next generation, too.[1]

Footnotes: 
[1]  Well, "trusted computing" could do us in.  But ordinary market
power, even of the Microsoft variety, probably can't.