At 11:34 morn 9/5/02 -0600, JTD wrote:
No offence meant mate. (my apologies if it did offend)
please do not apologise. This is just an argument, I do not take it personally and hope other dont too.
More precisely, that X GUI suxx ;) - i.e. for the uninitiated, it is not (very) sophisticated.
U mean it's too sophisticated for the uninitiated.
yes, everyone who disagrees with you is uninitiated. Most Linux users I have known are of the opinion that X does indeed suc. It could be much better. Maybe I am in the wrong company.
Note I was talking about the GUI only. Not the underlying architecture. And further, considering only the *GUI* aspect -
that is precisely my gripe.
I do not understand why you find the need to gripe. In the beginning of the thread itself I have said that *I* & most of us here use GNU/Linux because we like it & are in some way computer savvy/crazy. But for those who just want to use a computer as a tool (eg. my brother who is doing management) they *absolutely* do not care about the underlying architecture. Trying to *get* him to use Linux I started wondering about our efforts to promote it. Most of us look down on someone who is not interested to even try to understand trivial aspects of the computing environment. But the reality is there are a *lot* of such people. And I started questioning our need to ask them to use Linux. Why? Those who matter to the Linux world already use Linux. Why this "we shall save you from slavery" attitude?
eh? if you are meaning Intel 80386 processors, you are probably right.
yes that is exactly what i meant.
Intel 80386 processors have nothing to do with this argument. The are a negligibly small part of the family.
the cheap & generic x86 processors. Also as of today, IMHO, if you consider pure computing power, the best of the x86 family must be the most powerful.
confusing ... comparing x86 to x86
Maybe I was slightly terse there. I was talking about *all* the processors families in the world as of today. Some x86 processor is the *most* powerful processor _generally_available_. More than 90% of the computer sold in the last decade were PC's. And >90% of those run on x86 family of processors.
the systems are indeed hughe and complex but individual processors are far less complex than a i386 infact they are 8 and 16 bit devices.
which has anything to do with X being grubby ?
desktop (where it is used because of accident rather than any great design) windows is good for nothing.
refer above. As for windows being good for nothing, I disagree. And I will not discuss this point again, as it is beyond reason to reason with such zealotish attitudes. If you have valid points, put them up. These dramatic dialogues sound good but dont help GNU/Linux in anyway.
No no it's abt making a living v/s you toiling to make billy babas living.
Bill Gates has earned his money because he was smart. He lived in this world and used this world's own rules to make his pile. (note that I did not call him honest or dishonest.) Dont be jealous of his success or hate him for it.
is an cartography expert. He used to makes maps by hand in his younger days.
excuse my ignorance but are you refering to GIS systems (is cartography a subset or superset of GIS)
GIS system could be much more than mere cartographic systems. But in the end they need maps of some kind or other to visually represent the data, so I guess they are intertwined.
Today he makes them with the aid of a computer. They have spent ~7 lakhs on a software
One of my aquantainces dowloaded an open source GIS system and is developing numerous customised applications for clients.
no doubt about that. My father is unfortunately in the academic field. All the *free* or *free to try* products which they have ordered/downloaded have not proved to be of any great use. MapInfo and Vertical mapper have features which are *way* too sophisticated compared to the *free* ones. Unlike wordprocessors, these products cater to very specialized problem domains and have a very niche market and hence the *free* versions are not that easy to develop/maintain/use.
- Will my software run on Linux or is there a equivalent s/w on Linux?
See what happens if u use windows
they are using the above mentioned products on windows for the past 2 years with great ease and no problems (related to that software).
- Will *I* be able to manage Linux as I am the most computer savvy person
clip case of cart before the horse.
absolutely not. Rather the case of - if I cannot drive a car and/or cannot afford to hire a driver then is it wise to buy one?
- We have about only 10 PC's, so we cannot afford an engeneer/sysadmin.
Sys admin? what for.
"who is going to install/configure the whole thing? we are not computer people and though we would love to learn we hardly have the time"
- When we have spent 7 lakhs on MapInfo we did not mind spending 5-10Kz
on Windowz.
is that all. No mail server, no firewall, no word processing, no spread sheet?
"we use our university server for mail & some free mail client, free firewall & free *office for windows"
-- and most importantly -- 7. It works fine on windows, what advantage will I get on Linux ?
Using windows is the bait. The trap lies ahead (but that is a much hacked story)
all this conspiracy theory is amusing to say the least.
I think we were trying to discuss ways to promote Linux?
Dispelling scepticism in potential software and technical personnel is what i thought.
Then I must beg you pardon. I was under the impression we were talking about ways of promoting Linux among the world in general.
As for converting desktop pc it will happen on it's own with a little change in X some in Y and some more in Z.
which was all I was talking about in the first place.
The only limitation of Linux is brand equity.
It is the best "brand" for me and a lot of people. and I dont really care about others. If I had to choose only one OS for my PC, I would go in for Debian GNU/Linux. period. (this does not change my opinion that X is grubby)
The day somone decides to spend mega bucks on promoting linux the door would shut on widows.
That would be the day it would be no longer "cool".. and maybe that would be the day I shift from GNU/Linux. It would be sad indeed.
quasi