[members at lugog] Introduction

[john lewis]

On Mon, 22 Nov 2010 08:18:51 +0000
Sean Miller <sean at seanmiller.net> wrote:

> With Google about to release an "operating system" that is, to all
> intents and purposes, a thin client browser there is a feeling in many
> circles that within 5 years the concept of "the isolated unconnected
> home computer" will be gone, and the laptop/desktop or whatever will
> merely be "a window on the world".... if Linux wishes to remain
> anything other than some sort of "retro amusement", harking back to
> the glory days of the 90s when "my computer" really was MY computer,
> it does have to embrace the concept of being an extension to a huge
> network of connected media and that means that Youtube, iPlayer etc.
> should work as well as in Windows, if not (ideally) better!

That may be the case, but surely it doesn't mean that individuals have
to go along with that concept if they choose not to. 

I still prefer the idea that my telly does nothing more than letting 
me watch programs (in my case via FreeSat), that I still have separate
radios, record and CD players and so on. I have no wish to integrate
them into an all embracing system. I don't have any interest in
converting my vinyl LPs or CDs to mp3s and don't even have speakers
attached to my computers.  

I want to keep to the old unix concept of separate apps to do
different things but extended so I have discrete systems for different
tasks.

My wife and I use computers primarily for genealogy research so only
need email and web access to genealogy related sites, plus they also
need to provide related tools like a pdf reader, a photo manipulation
app, etc.

My wife has an XP system for her genealogy research but I actually
struggle to help her if she has problems as I haven't ever really used
MS operating systems since I first started on this computing lark back
in the early 80s. 

The first systems I was involved with used Concurrent CP/M and for
various reasons I moved to OS/2. I took an OS/2 system home with me when
I retired. I moved to Linux when IBM ceased supporting small business
and home users and whilst I did use a Mac G3 system for a while just to
see what it was all about it didn't even begin to lure me away from
Debian which I'd picked as my preferred distro after briefly dabbling
with RedHat, Mandrake and SuSE. 

Basically this cloud stuff is just vapour so far as I am concerned.


-- 
John Lewis
using Debian sid