Impressum / Imprint

Linux is Not Windows

Posted on October 12, 2005

Just stumbled across a nice essay about why Linux won’t ever be a Windows replacement.

Insightful and nice to read. Favourite quote:

The guiding principle of Linux and FOSS is “make good software”. It is not “Make Windows-replacing software”. The only thing a horde of typical Windows users will contribute to Linux is complaints. What will they complain? “It doesn’t work like this on Windows.”

No, it doesn’t. If it worked like Windows, Linux would suck. It would be an inferior copy that nobody would use. The reason people are so passionately fond of Linux is that it doesn’t work like Windows. It doesn’t do everything for you, it doesn’t assume you’re a perpetual ignorant newbie, it doesn’t hide all the inner workings from you.

Tagged with:   | 6 comments

Comments
  1. Edward Mendelson – October 25, 2005 @ 07:07 PM
    This is really a comment about your excellent T42/Ubuntu page, but that page no longer accepts comments, so I've taken the liberty of commenting here. Your guide to using OSD is really excellent, but I wonder if you have it working in the Breezy Badger release of Ubuntu. I've reached the point where I can make the OSD work with Fn+F6 after opening a terminal and entering "sudo /etc/init.d/acpid restart" but that clearly isn't a permanent solution. Any new information would be very welcome. Thank you again. emendelson -at- compuserve -dot- com
  2. jk – October 25, 2005 @ 11:46 PM
    Hi Edward, glad you found the howto useful :-) I didn't upgrade to Breezy yet, so I'm sorry I can't comment on the problem. I'll post an update to the Howto as soon as I find out about any differences with Breezy.
  3. Edward Mendelson – October 26, 2005 @ 06:49 PM
    Terrifically useful, and I've added your OSD idea to Fn+F5. But I still can't figure out how to make the OSD display without running acpid restart. I'll be posting a how-to page for Breeezy on a T42 to supplement my page on Hoary, which I wrote before I found your page: http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/ubuntuhoarythinkpadt42.html But it would be good to solve this one last problem!
  4. jk – October 27, 2005 @ 03:09 AM
    Problem solved. Indeed it seemed to exist under Hoary as well, I just didn't notice as I always hibernate, not reboot. I updated the Howto and the [/usr/local/shar/acpi-support/osd](/static/knowhow/t42_ubuntu/osd) file. Just change the username used in the su - statement to yours.
  5. Keith – November 07, 2005 @ 03:02 AM
    LMAO. Windows - it just works Linux - it just doesn't work, unless you spend loads of time configuring and are an expert. And then, maybe (provided you're willing to write stuff like device drivers). Desktop Linux sucks. Period.
  6. jk – November 07, 2005 @ 11:21 PM
    Keith, You're right, at least partially. Windows often just works - for the average user with average needs. But can you update your windows box including _all_ software installed on it to their latest versions with as little as two commands? I can: apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade This is exactly what the essay is about. If you like the way windows turns your System into a funny looking Point-and-Click game, where everything looks as if it would work fine, please don't even try to switch to Linux. Linux (or any other system which is open in a similar way) gives it's users the power to make it work *exactly* the way they like it. You don't want that power - fine, so go with Windows. Btw, I never ever wrote any device drivers, I even wouldn't call myself a Linux expert. I just use it and sometimes tweak it to fit my needs. But I admit that there's a steep learning curve - but as we all know - there's nothing like a free lunch...