Monday, February 23, 2009

Sigh... Time for a Good Rant!

http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/software/soa/Is-it-Windows-7-or-KDE-4-/0,139023769,339294810,00.htm

Okay, anyone bothering to read this, listen up. Windows 7 is a real threat, KDE 4 is making real inroads for GUI usability issues, and ZDnet is a bunch of idiots for not passing that knowledge along. Here's another one: hardcore Windows gamers, shut the hell up. I get that you HAVE to have the latest and greatest titles running at optimal efficiency, and that even a two-day wait (take a gander at the WINE AppDB times on major titles some time) would make you commit seppuku. The world doesn't begin and end at a damn EXE. Don't get me wrong here, I think the average computer user wouldn't know Linux from a hole in the wall, but the simple fact of the matter is that you guys are in the minority. The average user just wants to email, type, and maybe watch a few DVDs or kick back to some tunes. Anyone that thinks Linux can't do this - and do this easily - obviously has ignored distributions like Ubuntu and Mint, as well as the progress on Firefox, Evolution, OpenOffice, mplayer, VLC, amarok, gtkpod, and a whole host of others. The ignorance of those who not only desire, but demand the latest gaming titles should not be used to justify the dismissal of throngs of technological neophytes.

Where is Linux failing? Gamer fanboys who honestly have nothing better to do than criticize anything that isn't Microsoft's latest pandering to their interests. Incidentally, Gabe Newell - that name should be familiar to anyone playing ANYTHING based on DirectX right now - blasted Microsoft for locking DX10 to Vista. You remember Vista, right? The bloated turd that took another few hundred megs worth of a six-month patching effort to be considered reasonably usable?

Where is Linux succeeding? The server room, and the desktop is next. To hell with your pissant laptop (mine worked after some futzing around with ndiswrapper for wireless, which really ISN'T as big a deal as some might say, and certainly less strenous than trying to get the drivers for that cheap, junky MP3 watch you just scavenged off Lian-Li to do their job), the future of Linux is on professional workstations, a realm which is held by Microsoft in homes, and Apple in any serious A/V studio.

The simple fact of the matter is that change is around the next bend, and that scares the fanboys, who have to keep moving the goalposts for adoption farther and farther back. Should Blackcomb/Vienna live up to publicised DRM shortcomings, will they then still back Microsoft over a simple majority, rather than a complex one that discards several other players?

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