Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on November 06, 2004 03:00 AM
Why would any distribution maintainer wish to opt for "Install any of those, choose Linux Base, then look around." ? They wish to distinguish themselves, not blur the lines.
Why should Linux aim for Josephine and Fred Sixpack? Josephine and Fred don't install Windows. All they know how to do is get their Windows boxes online, get instantly compromised, and continually pester tech friends for help, and ignore good advice. What Josephine and Fred need are complete packages- a system that ships with some flavor of Linux installed, customized for particular types of users, and that has vendor support. We've had a few of these for years already, such as Emperor Linux and Linspire, and we're going to see more.
Why should power users, system administrators, and distribution maintainers be handcuffed by pandering to the lowest common denominator? The cool thing about Linux is that each distribution maintainer is free to customize and develop their particular distribution as they see fit. This ensures that all kinds of great advances and improvements are made. Then the marketplace decides which features and improvements become successful.
There are already several very good Linux distributions for Josephine and Fred- Linspire, Xandros, Mandrake to name but three. Yeah I know, actually expecting users to do a little homework and get some education on using a PC is probably too much to expect- but I see no good reason to emulate Windows. Windows is far behind Linux in sheer power, customizability, functionality, and security. The last thing Linux needs to do is aim lower.
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Posted by: Anonymous Coward on November 06, 2004 03:00 AMWhy should Linux aim for Josephine and Fred Sixpack? Josephine and Fred don't install Windows. All they know how to do is get their Windows boxes online, get instantly compromised, and continually pester tech friends for help, and ignore good advice. What Josephine and Fred need are complete packages- a system that ships with some flavor of Linux installed, customized for particular types of users, and that has vendor support. We've had a few of these for years already, such as Emperor Linux and Linspire, and we're going to see more.
Why should power users, system administrators, and distribution maintainers be handcuffed by pandering to the lowest common denominator? The cool thing about Linux is that each distribution maintainer is free to customize and develop their particular distribution as they see fit. This ensures that all kinds of great advances and improvements are made. Then the marketplace decides which features and improvements become successful.
There are already several very good Linux distributions for Josephine and Fred- Linspire, Xandros, Mandrake to name but three. Yeah I know, actually expecting users to do a little homework and get some education on using a PC is probably too much to expect- but I see no good reason to emulate Windows. Windows is far behind Linux in sheer power, customizability, functionality, and security. The last thing Linux needs to do is aim lower.
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