Linux should aim at Better Life, not Better Imitation

Average: 2.8 (6 votes)

Just occurs to me that there is now a 50/50 split of Linux's focus on the future.

Half the people are trying to improve things that imitate (often necessarily!) other peoples' work, half the people are working on innovative new things that do things differently (No I can't think of an example right now), and half the people are working on stuff they really don't need to bother with.

Yes that's 3 halves, thats the way my brain works.

Strikes me that Linux should push a better paradigm, more so than pushing existing ones.

For example(s):

* Its a full-blown unix, not some toy desktop modular TSR system like MSWindows, and not a vested-interest legacy project like Apple OSX, and far, far funkier than anything Sun etc, or the BSD crowd for that matter, have.
Linux should rejoice in this. It can already, as a direct result of being so 'hardcore', offer full security and a choice of desktops, and is a killer just right there with those two!!

* You can overload a machine with running apps, absolutely drive it into the ground with open windows. It'll get slow, it'll get lumpy .... but most of the time (most of) it won't lock up or crash. It's better. Not 'as good', not 'different' - better.

* Diving straight into the commercial desktop - let's face it, really FACE it: most of it is concerned with moving around large amounts of utter CRAP more easily. Meetings you don't need to have, 'process' documents nobody will follow, presentations that just waste people's lives, and loads and loads of wankspeak that never need have been uttered to allow an enterprise to keep rolling. Let's leave that behind, let's find out what REALLY needs doing and do it, and do it in the simplest way we can so it can be expanded and is reliable!

There is the opportunity for apps that do things completely differently. For desktops with wild and strange abilities (NO, KEEP IT SIMPLE!! We DONT MEAN ADD MORE SOFTWARE BUSSES, WE MEAN _SIMPLIFY_ THE EXISTING ONES AND WORK OUT HOW TO MAKE THEM MORE EASILY USABLE BY PROGRAMMERS!!! By my CapsLock key, this needs to be driven home!!!), which could really improve the way people work and create.

Jon

I agree except for the

I agree except for the commercial desktop part. We don't use wanky documents like that anyway.
It is GOOD to be able to play games and run commercial software. Besides, its NOT for the OS developers to determine what the user shoud and shouldn't do with their PC.

The OS just provides a mechanism for software to run, be installed, managed, etc. Windows AND Linux make the mistake of trying to coerce the users into following a particular paradigm (The Windows eXperience, and the "You dont really NEED to run that stuff" attitude of Linux.

Linux has more potential to allow the user to use their computer as THEY see fit than Windows because it is
a) more modular (You don't HAVE to run a GUI to run the system)
b) Has a good command line making point a) viable. Yes, I do think a good CLI is important and not "outdated".
c) Doesn't have to follow a 'marketing vision' or sell itself or appease to mindless users.
.
a) Its TOO modular (Too many distros, toolkits, versions of software)
b) You need to know how to use complex command line tools to do stuff which by all rights, should be simple like installing a program. DOS was purely command line and 10 year olds could figure it out because it was consistent and reliable.
c) Linux does seem to follow and coerce users into a particular way of doing things which are at two extremes. Users need to be able to hack the innards of the system to get sound working, but at the same time, have desktop functionality removed to make the DE look even more simplified?

The problem is Linux usn't the apps. Forget the apps, just focus on the core system. Get the core system consistent and easy to work on and people will be able to write an app that just runs on "Linux 2.4 or greater" and can be installed using a standard installtion method on any Linux box.

At least Linux doesn't steal

At least Linux doesn't steal technology from others and sell it as their own like Microsoft does :)

Really, if there is some

Really, if there is some stealing going on .. it's mostly FROM open source projects.

Really, last time I checked

Really, last time I checked Linux desparately tries to imitate everything Windows. I can give many examples.

As soon as mac OS X & Vista come up with instant search, so does Linux, As soon as Mac OS X comes up with Aqua, Vista with Aero, linux has Beryl.

Many more examples can be given. Saying that linux doesn't copy is bullshit.

Um, beryl and compiz was out

Um, beryl and compiz was out way before aero hoss

I don't know the development

I don't know the development history but just because something is released first doesn't mean it was the first one invented and/or not a copy of something someone else was doing.