Comments on lefty.crupps' GNUski bacon: the WalMart gOS vs. the community? Nah.

Oops, posted before expected. Anyway ... thought ...

2007-11-29T04:33:00.000-06:00

Oops, posted before expected. Anyway ... thought that quoted thought was worth repeating.

"It will never happen that /everyone/ wants to cus...

2007-11-29T04:25:00.000-06:00

"It will never happen that /everyone/ wants to customize their desktop, nor car, nor kitchen -- we all have our interests, and we stick with the 'good enough' for the rest of our lives."

that hellius guy is probably part of Elive's inner...

2007-11-29T02:22:00.000-06:00

that hellius guy is probably part of Elive's inner community, chances are if he did not pay for his elive download, he's porbably a tester for elive.

atleast gos is readily available for download unlike elive.

>does it mean the end of our tidy little ecosystem...

2007-11-28T18:52:00.000-06:00

>does it mean the end of our tidy little ecosystem? I think so.
Yes, I agree, it does. Also, probably a lot more support opportunities for small businesses which specialize in Linux, and a lot of the Linux users I know *enjoy* helping others through FLOSS issues. Within those gOS customers, 1% of the children, or whatever number you'd prefer, will geek out and learn enough to help the ecosystem sustain itself. Other users will use it exactly as its designed, afraid to change anything (good advice in the Windows world, but bad habits die hard and it's not such an issue in desktop Linux, nor very fun). Yet other users will grow comfortable enough with it to recommend it to friends and thus, the world will spread.

>But will it be as comfortable as the old ecosystem?
Probably not, but if its to believed from the 'old timers', life in the FLOSS ecosystem was a lot better than before *I* came along, or whomever. The olden days are always the best, aren't they?

What I mean to say is, the gOS is helping on multiple fronts:

1) Getting people to use an alternative to closed, proprietary software, at an affordable cost

2) Getting computers into the hands of many more people in the US; with the income gap widening, I see this as a huge benefit

3) Opening the idea in people's minds that they don't *need* application X, nor Y, nor MSOffi... er, Z.

4) The "unwashed masses" are exactly those that *spread the ideas* that others have. Either you want desktop GNU/Linux/FLOSS use to spread, or you don't. If you do, then we have to allow it to happen *somehow*, and the 1-pc-at-a-time home install isn't going to get us there. It takes money, usually corporate, and work to get preinstalled systems on a retailers shelves. Cananocal (*buntu) hasn't done this, nor Novell (Suse/OpenSuse), nor RedHat (Fedora). So, how does it get out there?

I completely agree that Helios has much more experience with all of this, and I am very interested in his new exercise about selecting the most 'noob-friendly' applications: http://blog.lobby4linux.com/index.php?/archives/364-Doin-it-for-the-Noob....html

I am also very interested in what distro Helios actually installs for people, and how long it takes him to customize it each time... but I don't think his effort and experience allows him a monopoly on the concept of "an easy-to-use OS."

It will never happen that /everyone/ wants to customize their desktop, nor car, nor kitchen -- we all have our interests, and we stick with the 'good enough' for the rest of our lives. If the gOS is Good Enough for a lot of computer users, and its Free/Libre Open Source Software? Then that is sweet. If its not Good Enough, then they probably won't buy it.

Thank you for stopping by the blog, and for the discussion.... we can keep it up if you'd like?

Your arguments are obviously genuine and when you ...

2007-11-28T11:32:00.000-06:00

Your arguments are obviously genuine and when you ask if you are an optimistic geek I would answer "a little". That's my take on this in my limited experience. I don't want Helios to be right, but he has had more shared-atmosphere time with the public regarding Linux than anyone I can think of.

I suspect that most people buying the gPC from Wal-Mart are getting the right computer for the wrong reasons. As long as they understand the limitations, which are not limited to the software alone, they will be happy. But if this is to be the launching point for "Linux for the masses", does it mean the end of our tidy little ecosystem? I think so. But will it be as comfortable as the old ecosystem? I don't know. I think the layout of the final landscape will elude all but those who retrofit their theories to the final outcome.