[ale] linux community need attitude adjustment?

Fri Oct 19 19:11:06 EDT 2001

Bad attitude ... No, I don't think so.

Strong faith in a product ... most definitely...

Religious fervor ... In some cases, YES ... and it is these zealots to whom 
you are most likely referring.

With message forums as in talk radio, the people you hear from are usually 
(not always) the zealots representing the extremes of an argument.  Such is 
the case anytime a pro-Microsoft article appears or a pro-this-language 
article, etc.  Witness some of the language jihads that have run their 
course through this very list.

In the real world (as opposed to the surrealistic, utopian world), life 
presents a variety of problems, a equal number of solutions and a wide 
selection of tools from which to choose to solve the problems and build the 
solutions.  Unfortunately, a rather large number of people only have 
hammers in their toolbox and, consequently, every problem looks a whole lot 
like a nail.  Sometimes it is their fault they only have a 
hammer....sometimes it is merely all that is made available to them by the 
hierarchy they live within.  This hierarchy may be dictated by their 
employer or their customers or both.  The real world is driven by profit 
margins and cash flows.  In order to generate these, you must offer product 
to the widest audience that you can in order to reach a point at where the 
cost of producing the product is less the revenue you can generate from the 
product.

For the time being, the real world consists of 70-90% Windows desktops 
(depending on who is doing the counting...).  Good, bad or otherwise, this 
is a FACT.  Consequently, a corresponding percentage of drivers and end 
user software are available for Windows while maybe not available for other 
platforms (Linux).  The companies and individuals producing product for 
this market are going to deliver that which can reach the largest audience 
first and the niche market second.  Simple economics...good, bad or otherwise.

Do I love Windows?  No....   Do I write Windows code?  Yes, and a lot of 
it.... Why?  Because my customers want it and pay for it and I like living 
indoors and eating regular meals.

Do I love Linux?  Maybe..  Love is a strong emotion.  I like what Linux 
gives me.  I cuss continually at what I can't get in terms of tools for 
Linux that I get in a Windows environment.  Do I write Linux code?  Yes, 
but for recreation and self-education....because I can't sell it right now.

I have written code on everything from TRS-80 and Northstars to IBM 
3900s.  I have written in Assembler, COBOL, RPG, C, C++, BASIC, Pascal, 
Perl, shell script using God knows what for tools and 
compilers.  Why?  Because I love to code and I like living indoors and 
eating regular meals (and driving sports cars....but I digress...).

It all comes down to an old prayer I have heard for years:

Grant me the strength to change what I can.....
The patience to accept what I can't....
and the wisdom to know the difference between the two......

(and the good sense to bury the bodies of those that piss me off......)

At 10:14 PM 10/19/2001 +0000, Cade Thacker wrote:
>Please forgive any misspelling and grammer, i am typing in a hurry.
>
>I am hoping that this email will start a good discussion. I respect
>the opinions on the ALE list members and feel that good ideas and
>level heads are out there among you, so here goes....
>
><baring my soul>
>I love linux and open source, I love what it stands for and what
>possibilities lying ahead of it, BUT the last few months I have
>become more and more frustrated with the community's attitude.  The
>other day, slashdot posted an article about there is soon going to be
>more Java coders than C/C++ coders. Most all of the comments saw this
>as being a horrible, horrible thing. One comment was something along
>the lines of "i'd like to see a DVD player written in java!."  This
>just capped off my frustration.  I don't really see Java gaining more
>developers at the expense of C/C++.  They both have their VERY
>important places. Somebody still has to write the VM! Anyway, maybe I
>just don't have the right(wrong) attitude, but I am sometimes feel
>that linux could be so much farther along if we did not have people
>cussing out hardware venders because they won't supply a driver, or
>jumping all over somebody who uses Microsoft. Nobody is forcing them
>to supply us with a driver, the same way nobody is forcing us to
>linux! I help out my parents in their 4 person law office. I would
>never consider replacing there windows boxes with linux boxes. Why?
>because I love Microsoft? Because I don't support linux?(as some
>would say), NO, Becase my parents need to type letters. Thats all.
>They don't need a leatherman, they need a freakin screwdriver. When
>OpenOffice(or whatever) is comparable to MS Office then I will then
>seriously consider switching them, but even then some of their law
>software is Windows specific! Will I replace their windows NT server
>with a linux box? maybe one day, but if it ain't broke, i ain't
>fixing it. Anyway, I am a little off topic, but the main point of
>this email is:
>
>Does anybody else think that the linux community in general has a bad
>attitude?
>
>maybe I am more of the Martin Luther King Jr type of change then the
>Black Panthers. Thanks for listening.
>
></baring my soul>
>
>Sorry for the rant, but will somebody please try and restore my faith
>in the humanity of the linux community. I love the community. It
>feels good to be part of something so cool, but more and more I just
>feel like my attitude is so different from the rest of the people.
>
>if you made it down to this line, thank you so much for reading my
>whole rant ;-)
>
>--cade
>=========================
>On Linux vs Windows --
>Remember amateurs built the ark - professionals built the Titanic
>=========================
>
>
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The difficult while you wait.....the impossible overnight.

Leonard Thornton
Intelis, Inc.
5960 Crooked Creek Rd
Suite 30
Norcross, GA  30092

Office: 770.825.0032
Fax:            770.825.0028
Cellular:       404.583.5402
Pager:          888.785.9188
Email:          Leonard at Intelis-Inc.net
http://www.intelis-inc.com
http://www.intelis-inc.net

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