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Subject:RE: And more on open source... From:"Sean Wheller" <swheller -at- bigpond -dot- net -dot- au> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 24 Feb 2003 21:06:46 +1100
Andrew! On the whole I do agree with you; for once. :-)
I think that the Open Source movement is aware of the problems you mention
hence alliances such as United Linux (http://www.unitedlinux.com/). It still
has some way to go, but already I do feel the benefits.
Also in the desktop area, where KDE and GNOME are moving closer together.
You are quite correct about having to struggle with getting things working.
I have done this many times. Though it does not bother me as much as it
would some people. I think the reason stems from having a technical
background. I still like to fiddle and tweak, test and fail, until finally
it works. It gives me a great sense of achievement (small things for small
minds I guess), I feel I have learnt something new while staying in touch. I
also like to chance the bleeding-edge and regularly find myself as an early
adopter. Being knee deep in computer parts and code gives me a warm squishy
feeling between my toes (no, I don't have a foot fetish).
I used to enjoy fixing Windows problems. Then one day the problems became
less and less. Until the only ones left were boring. Then, in search of new
adventure I tried OS/2 and the Linux. What can I say. Now I have the
problems and an increase in productivity. Madness, I don't try to
understand.
This said, I really do think that the KDE and GNOME desktops have advanced
to such an extent that they compare very well with most applications running
on Windows. I will confess that Windows still does some things better.
However, when you consider that majority of users rarely use more that email
and a word processor, I wonder why they can't use Linux.
Chow for now,
Sean Wheller
swheller -at- bigpond -dot- net -dot- au
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