IP: Requested -- ANONYMOUS POST -- Linux competes with Windows 98 -- not

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> From:
> http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/crg733.htm
>
>
> OPINION
>
>
> Linux: Windows competitor ... NOT!
>
> Wanna learn Linux? How much time do you have?
>
> By Will Rodger, USATODAY.com
>
> Microsoft Group Vice President Paul Maritz seemed a
> worried man when he took the stand in the Microsoft
> trial last winter.
>
> A specter, he said with dread, was haunting Microsoft.
>
> Promoters of free software -- Open Source
> revolutionaries -- were massing beneath the black and
> white banner of Linux.
>
> At the head of the mob was a bespectacled Finn named
> Linus Torvalds. He, along with fellow revolutionaries
> Eric Raymond, Larry Wall and Paul Vixie were exhorting
> the masses to churn out free software
>
> "It seems trite to say it, but it's almost as though the
> village blacksmiths of the world can now build axles in
> their back yard and assemble them together and compete
> with General Motors," Maritz said then. "And that's
> literally what is going on. We have … proof through the
> Linux operating system."
>
> Microsoft spent much of that trial trying to show that
> Linux, like the hand-held Palm organizer and the fringe
> Be operating system, is a "competitor" to Windows 98.
> Microsoft needed to show that to avoid being labeled a
> monopoly. But the strategy failed, and Microsoft now
> seems all but certain to lose its case before Judge
> Thomas Penfield Jackson.
>
> The Redmondians lost their argument because Linux, in
> fact, is remarkably difficult to use. I should know --
> after several weekends of experimentation at home, I’ve
> determined I’ll need to sit down and study hard to
> achieve even minimal competence with the operating
> system.
>
> Small wonder Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson dismissed
> Microsoft’s assertions that Linux and Windows 98 compete
> for the same customers.
>
> "The target is people who are very sophisticated with
> computers," says Tim Scanlon, a Northern Virginia
> computer consultant who has spent the last 15 years of
> his life working on Unix computer systems. "By
> definition this is someone who is not (an average) user."
>
> My own experience has uncovered a host of problems that
> Microsoft and Apple licked years ago. Since I added
> Linux to a computer at home, I find I can’t make my
> cable modem work because the device that connects it to
> my PC won’t work with Linux. I can’t make my standard-
> issue laser printer work because -- contrary to the
> assertions of the point-and-click interface in the
> configuration settings -- Linux does not know it is
> there.
>
> I have the same problems with my PC’s sound, since
> the "sndconfig" program designed to handle that part of
> the computer isn't working either. It's so not working,
> in fact, it doesn't even have the good graces to give me
> an error message when I try to start it up.
>
> This, by the way, is a fairly common trait of Linux
> software. Sophisticated programmers, after all, don't
> want to spend time on things like warning messages when
> there are so many more urgent matters to address.
>
> Scanlon tells me my problems are pretty minor for
> someone who knows what he's doing. A new circuit card to
> hook up to my modem plus a few changes to some internal
> configuration files should set things straight.
>
> But even simple tasks like those are far beyond the
> Linux neophyte.
>
> To get my printer to work, I must first learn a powerful
> yet hard to use word processor called the vi text
> editor. Vi (pronounced vee-eye) is all command lines --
> no menus, no point-and-click, just glowing letters on a
> blank screen. Once I’ve figured out how to use that,
> I’ll be able to write the short string of code the
> printer needs to talk to the PC.
>
> The documentation that came with the operating system
> does give me a few tips on using text editors, but not
> nearly enough to do what I need. For that, the manual
> told me, I need other books that go into greater detail.
>
> Running Linux from publisher O’Reilly & Associates tells
> me a bit more about how to use text editors, but still
> not enough to make me feel comfortable with the job. And
> a third book, Teach yourself Linux in 24 hours, offered
> a few more pointers, but only enough to make me
> minimally competent.
>
> None of this looks like anything I ever had to do with
> Windows.
>
> As difficult as the printer problem has been, I expect
> hooking up that cable modem will go more smoothly.
>
> When it does, I’ll be sure to write about it on my new
> copy of StarOffice for Linux. Of course, I need to
> install that, too. The accompanying documentation tells
> me I should install the software just as I would any
> other new package, but doesn’t offer any specifics I can
> understand without a bit more research.
>
> Of course, I’m still not worried.
>
> I mean, how hard can it be?