[Gllug] Linuxemporium - Pink Tie

[Mike Brodbelt]

On Thu, 2002-11-21 at 15:35, George Saxby wrote:

> I don't see how/why you claim that Debian is elitist,

The technical knowledge "barrier to entry" is higher for Debian than for
many other Linux distros. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the
installer. For an experienced Linux user, this is a non-issue, but a
potential Windows convert, who has no Linux experience, would be far
more at ease with RedHat's GUI installer than with Debian's install. God
help the newbie who tries to run dselect.

> I can find many 
> people who are "elitist" about their own distros, the very line you are 
> painting itself could be considered elitist if you look at it from a 
> different point of view. Most Debian users don't really care how many 
> people run Debian,

Most Debian users run it because it suits their needs. I run Debian, but
I wouldn't advise my parents to try it, whereas they might conceivably
manage RedHat.

> the point I was outlining is that Debian will not 
> give up its flexibility to cater to the demands of x86 pc users at the 
> expense of other users of the less used architectures and if it did many 
> people would leave the distro and start a new founded on the basis of 
> doing things right rather than to make things easy for a few people.

Debian has a dedication to doing things right, which I find laudable.
There are many pieces of software I run on servers, that on RedHat, I
would build and install myself. With Debian, I find myself far happier
to just run the official packages most of the time. There are exceptions
- the sendmail package is godawful, but on the whole the packaging is
excellent, and the distribution does what the user tells it to, rather
than trying to second-guess the user.
 
>  windows is not easy to install.

It's easier to install than Debian. Windows looks at your harware, and
makes choices for you. Personally, I hate this attitude. It prevades MS
software, and is nowhere more apparent than in XP, which assumes the
user is a moron, and treats them as such. Debian assumes the user has a
clue. For the clueless or inexperienced who try the distribution, the
experience can be a painful one.
 
> Computer operating systems are not easy to install, until there is "one 
> way" to install every OS there will always be a perception that 
> everything else is difficult to install/use etc. etc. Most people don't 
> care what OS they run, we care thats why we run linux

Actually, most people do care what OS they run. That's why they run
Windows. If they genuinely didn't care, they automatically choose the
technically superior system, and Windows would die. People want to run
Windows, because they want/need/are forced to run MS Office/Quicken/IE/
- insert whatever Windows app you deem suitable.
 
> , and people who 
> want to change will.

If they can. I think that apps like Mozilla and Open Office are the most
important things in the free software community today. They are cross
platform, and, as such, make the OS irrelevant, except as a base for the
apps. Linux is a better base than Windows. That's why MS try so hard to
tie their apps to Windows, and to court developer mind share. People
don't want Windows, they want windows apps. If the apps were all cross
platform, the Windows monopoly would die tomorrow.
 
>  What most people want is to be able to get tasks 
> done, moving to Linux will stop most of them getting things done. 

Exactly. They have time and effort invested in Windows applications.
It's those applications that need replacing.
 
Mike


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