[CS-FSLUG] The Fast-Food Syndrome: The Linux Platform is Getting Fat

[Ed Hurst]

N. Thompson wrote:

> I don't usually like OSNews but this article has a very good point that 
> cannot be ignored, I've seen what its like to try and install and run 
> Linux on older computers myself and it is a very serious problem. On my 
> old Celeron 466 back when I had it, it got to the point where Windows 
> was in fact faster then Linux in some places and that was quite a while 
> ago, now I've got a Pentium 4 with smp and Windows would still be (much) 
> faster were it not for the requirement of Anti-virus, firewall, 
> anti-spyware, anti-adware (the list goes on) software. Linux has a very 
> devoted <cough>zealous<cough> user base that unfortunately lets that 
> blind them, when the problem gets too bad I think the worse of us are 
> just going to say "switch to Gentoo/CRUX/LFS or stop complaining" while 
> the rest are going to switch to FreeBSD, Syllable, SkyOS or back to Windows.

Seems to me we've discussed this before from a different angle. This is
yet another manifestation of the same old dichotomy: consumers vs.
aficionados. Both are 'users,' but of a different sort. (Standard
disclaimers about generalizations apply.) The user base will grow as
Windows becomes less viable in a hostile Internet world.

The average Joe likes glitzy entertainment, and his computer is just an
extension of his TV/VCR/DVD. Indeed, with TV-out/TV-in cards so common
these days, you can watch it on your computer, or use your TV as a
monitor. In the consumer market, there will be ever more convergence.

Because that is the market, that's where the money is. Even for
something like Open Source -- free and libre -- things tend to follow
the money. If folks clamor for this or that capability, the FOSS
community tends to respond. Check out Freshmeat.net and look at the
increasing number of glitz projects. That there are more free coders
working Linux makes it more likely Linux will be built to accommodate glitz.

Glitz takes horsepower. Software horsepower demands hardware horsepower.
Lots of hardware remains closed source, and so we FOSS folk are left to
reverse engineering for drivers that seldom make full use of the
hardware, or do so with lots of kludge. Windows is obliged by it's
nature to build in fat to satisfy commercial grade demands of copyright
security (their own and others'), and the kludge of securing what is
inherently insecure.

Want pure computing? Run something like DOS, or just get out of the GUI.
Linux must get fat to be viable in the marketplace. Aficionados will
complain at the hijacking of their OS by the marketplace of Joes, but
will at the same time be glad for the money that indirectly blesses the
things they like.

Maybe I should read that article.... :-)


-- 
Ed Hurst
-----------
Software Freedom Day, 28 August 2004
Got Freedom?
http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/

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