On Thu, 07 May 1998, Hugh Lawson wrote:
>Stephen is correct that linux as we play with it will not penetrate the
>home market. In the same way cabinetmaking will never penetrate the home
>market. It takes too long to learn how to make cabinets, though the
Well, I suppose you are right. (I bought this entertainment center and
it came unassembled. I still haven't put it together yet. :)
But cabinetmaking isn't really the same thing as getting a Linux
distribution up and running -- it is a better analogy for writing your
own software.
Even if someone gets a machine with Windows 95 installed, he will still
have to invest time finding other software, whether it be in retail
stores, or downloadable over the net. Windows, for instance, doesn't
even come with a version of zip/unzip/gzip -- one has to go get it and
find it. A similar situation exists for other needed software.
This would be like buying a chest of drawers without any drawers, and it
would come with a little card saying "third party drawers can be found
by calling the following 900 number". :)
>It is not hard to imagine a boot cdrom that installs the linux operating
>system and a few basic easily used applications: word processing, email,
>web browser, easy installation scripts for ppp, and so on. Such a system
In many ways, this is already the case. Several email packages are
installed by default, and there are several WPs or text-processing
setups that are also in there -- for example lyx. It's not StarOffice,
of course. Whether or not SO could be bundled with Redhat is a space and
a licensing issue, of course. But then, Windows doesn't come with a word
processor either, or newsreader, or email client, etc.
(Side issue: I really don't see anything wrong with MS bundling Explorer
with their OS. If anything, a browser is an essential component if you
are going to have an "internet-capable" OS (it's debatable if '95 is one
of these, BTW) and one can still d/l netscape for free if they want to.
You'll need one or the other (or perhaps a third alternative, like
Opera) and MS is just saving you the d/l time for its product, which
you have to d/l and install yourself now. If Windows came with all the
tools and stuff in a typical Linux distribution, the powers that be
would wet themselves.)
>would "protect" ordinary home users from the need to learn
so much. Then >they could purchase other cd's with programs arranged for
easy >installation.
Having some of these CDs readily available is a good thing, and as long
as they aren't tied to any specific version of Linux (for instance, SO
seemingly requiring Caldera as a base) then people will go for the CD
method rather than having to d/l a big package over the net. And
another thing -- SO isn't really built to install cleanly without a load
of disk space. For instance, you untar it, and it expands into a
boatload of files that have to further be uncompressed and installed -
that's at least twice the disk space just for doing the install. A CD
could eliminate some of the extra resources needed, as would an RPM that
dispensed with one of the unnecessary install steps.
>Most home users of msdos never write a batch file or a qbasic program,
>but they do install and use programs. Using rpm to install programs on
>redhat is easier than installing Win 95 programs. Moreover you have a
>vastly superior ininstall program.
No doubt about that, and as far as visibility, the non-commercial apps
for Windows 95 are just a bit more accessible than those for Linux are
-- but not by much. Maybe Linux Journal needs to distribute a CD or two
chock full of linux extras (stuff not usually in any given distribution)
with each paid subscription, like PC Mag does. (Interestingly, PC
Magazine now ignores Linux for much the same reasons they used to ignore
*nearly all* DOS "shareware", save for the few paltry s/w programs they
published themselves.)
>Imagine a distribution that put the user immediately into X, so that he
>never even encountered the console. Imagine scripts that would take care
>of the tedium of changing file permissions to let programs run
>satisfactorily. Linux is close to this now.
It's already here. One word - KDE.
Of course, there are still space and licensing (I think?) issues here.
>Hugh Lawson
>Greensboro, North Carolina
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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