[aklug] Re: windoze 7 sucks

On Wed, 20 Oct 2010, Royce Williams wrote:

> James Tweet said, on 10/19/2010 11:03 PM:
>> Oh I'm serious. I think this is the most serious flaw Linux has. Don't get me
>> wrong. I love Linux.
>
> I have to agree with James. The trick is back to the "easy things
> simple, difficult things possible" by letting the GUI and command line
> be aware of one another, sanity-check one another, and co-exist. That
> gets everybody what they want.

I think James has gone off on a tangent. James and you are correct *if*
you're talking about the consumer market, in which case I would agree that
the casual user does need GUIs, wizards, etc., to achieve any decent market
penetration.

However, I responded to an assertion that GUIs were necessary for the
*enterprise* market, which couldn't be more wrong. GUIs are an
impediment to config management, not an aid, so I hardly see how that is a
selling point. Sure, there's going to be the types generated by the MS Mill
with the indoctrinated brain damage, but there's not much you can do for
them anyway.

If we focus on the original concept of enterprise computing I don't see how
anyone who's actually had to maintain a 100+ systems could ever advocate
GUIs as essential and/or more efficient and *easier* to use than text files.
If you can't make that case, then there's no case for GUIs there at all.

Which is not to say that I'm opposed to anyone doing GUI development for
Linux, far from it, I just don't want to be forced to use it. Nor do I
think, from a marketing perspective, that *that's* what is needed to gain
deeper penetration in the data center. Our penetration is already damned
good and growing steadily, and not just at the expense of proprietary
Unices, either. I can come up with a hundred things Linux needs to do
better for the enterprise, and GUIs aren't on that list anywhere.

In the end, GUIs make sense for the person having to manage an isolated
system, or a small handful with no real config management. But nowhere
else.

         --Arthur Corliss
           Live Free or Die
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Received on Wed Oct 20 09:03:27 2010