[lug] my latest guilty pleasure -- Linuxhaters Blog

[Nate Duehr]

On Jul 29, 2008, at 6:24 PM, Elyse M. Grasso wrote:

> I think that's a false requirement: 98% of the ofice people I've  
> dealt with in
> the past few years, and half the 'technical' people, do not and  
> usually
> cannot  set up their own Windows boxes. They just use whatever the IT
> department sets up for them.


Right, right, right... but see, 98% of the IT departments do not set  
up Linux for them and never will.  If people are ever going to  
"switch", they must be able to do it on their own at home first.  And  
stuff has to work.  Otherwise, Linux is forever the "hacker's" OS.

Nothing wrong with that, but if that's the goal, Linux enthusiasts  
could tone down the "we're going to take over the world!" stuff...  
'cause they won't.  Ever.

Linux's installer(s) [Again that "too much choice thing"... distros...  
sigh...] are going to have to get to a stage where they're rock solid.

Seriously -- this stuff where things like video cards not working (at  
all) and other stuff like that during an installation really has to  
end.  I had a call from a friend this weekend... bog standard 2D  
embedded ATI card, and the CentOS installer barfed on it, leaving him  
with a completely black screen.  He's a techie and wasn't impressed --  
imagine the regular folk's impression of such a thing.

"Linux" can whine and complain about not dealing with just loading  
binary bits of non-open code (drivers) and about freedom and all that  
later.  It needs to WORK first.  Sign some NDA's and get on with it.   
This "open or die" mentality is fine, but it WILL mean brokenness, and  
if the goal is a non-broken OS *first*, and then free software... but  
it's not.  So I guess I don't know why I'm bothering to explain.

Also (and I'm not saying it doesn't happen), I haven't put a Windows  
installation CD in a machine in YEARS and had it barf so badly on the  
video that you couldn't see the screen.  It ALWAYS defaults to  
something sane, even if all you get is 640X480 VESA.  And of course,  
same thing with the Mac -- but Apple is the only company left that's  
smart enough to avoid the hardware headaches by offering a well- 
integrated solution.  My friend's boring system with a three year old  
ATI chipset?  Black screen.  And the requirement to go look up some  
odd-ball kernel setting to tell it to stop using it so he could get  
the installation done.

Not cool anymore... used to think it was "fun" to hack around this  
stuff, but I have stuff to do and people to see... screwing around  
with getting VIDEO to show up in an installer in 2008, just isn't  
acceptable to me anymore.  Slogging through a broken installer that  
can't figure out the screen's dead and default to something sane,  
honestly, isn't very useful or fun anymore.  I know folks enjoy it,  
but the distros really have to take a look in the mirror and ask  
themselves if that's the impression they wish to give people in the  
middle of their first install.

("I have to go to something called an InstallFest in 2008 to get this  
crap on my computer?  No thanks.  I gotta go mow the yard and play  
with the dog/kids/whatever.  Have fun with that... I guess.")

In any other engineering discipline, integrating software and hardware  
tightly is a sign that the product has matured.  In OS's Apple is  
"hated" by millions for their "closed-ness".    Yeah, but that closed  
OS seems to always WORK.

Do I want to download six different versions of firmware for my  
toaster and test them all out and see which one works best in my  
microcontroller-driven appliance?  No thanks.  Same thing with my  
car... do I want to choose the software for the airbag controller?   
Hell no.

Is it time the OS that just sits underneath real application software  
on a computer "just works"?  Yep.  I think so.

Thus, my comment.  To win over ANYONE -- the goal is not to build  
something that the "IT Department" can somehow figure out and get  
working for everyone.  The goal is to build something everyone can  
load and use, without breakage during just the installation!  I guess  
that's asking a lot?

--
Nate Duehr
nate at natetech.com