Subj : Re: Windows vs Linux
To   : tenser
From : boraxman
Date : Fri Apr 22 2022 20:51:20

 te> Perhaps that's true for hobbyists.
 te> Yes, that's the point.  These things are tools.  People who
 te> care about the interface and shell and all of that are focusing
 te> on the tool, not the application of that tool.  Most people do
 te> not -- and should not -- care.
 te> 
 te> So those are the sorts of superficial differences that don't
 te> really matter.  Being a hobbyist and futzing around with window
 te> managers and shells stuff is fine, but you can do that with many
 te> systems.  That's really not where the focus in the Linux
 te> community is.
 te> 

The shell is a tool, the interface is a tool.  I use the shell to solve problems, work things out.  Using a Mac at work, I used the shell to manage data, run queries and provide formatted output and validation from CSV data.

Computers store and manipulate data.  The Unix shell allows you to manipulate and transform data in ways that you describe, and create functionality which may not already exist in other programs.

 te> Yup.  And those machines on the top 500 list?  I guarantee
 te> you those nodes aren't running a window manager, or even much
 te> of a userspace at all.  No one logs into them, so they don't
 te> care about the tools.  In fact, most of the time you try to
 te> keep Linux from running on the app cores in anything other than
 te> a cursory way, so as not to interfere with the HP codes.
 te> 
 te> Viable for what?  It's already ubiquitous.  The world literally
 te> runs on Linux and the mainframe; it swept everything before it.
 te> Whether end users run it on their desktops or laptops is mostly
 te> irrelevant, and in any case, millions of people already do.
 te> 

I don't really care about Linux, it is the freedom and ability to use a general purpose computer in whatever way I choose that is important.

Wanting some code to be popular, just to see it be popular, is kind of pointless.  It is the freedom I care about.

 te> Just running Linux on a tiny fraction of the overall computer
 te> does not make "freedom" in the FSF sense.  You do you, but let
 te> me know when you can see your storage device's firmware or CPU
 te> microcode.  The next major battle in this front has shifted to
 te> firmware, because Linux already won.
 te> 

You haven't won anything if the kernel sits underneath a prioprietary, locked down wall garden.  As I said, I don't care one iota if my TV runs Linux, if the TV is locked down anyway.

Why should I want the kernel to succeed?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

.