[AuckLUG] Re: Dell Preinstalls Ubuntu

[Guy K. Kloss]

Hi,

first of all: Please avoid TOFU if possible!

On Thu, 17 May 2007 11:57:45 am Ravi Chemudugunta wrote:
> with every new release of ubuntu things get ironed out ... and make it more
> new comer friendly; the only thing that really hinders linux on desktops at
> business is the lack of support by their software vendors to supply linux
> ports - understandably though, application development in "linux" has so
> many choices, which one ?

This is a problem of the vendors who mostly have not understood the processes 
that go on in open source environments.

> ... this is also the problem I have when people 
> say get "linux" or blah blah ... I think it should more along the lines of
> get "a distro" ... distros itself are so varied that it would scare windows
> developers away;

Again, there it is. It scares "windows developers" away. They apparently have 
not got a clue what it is all about. They've never been exposed to anything 
outside the Wintendo world, so they wouldn't even know how to do well on a 
specific distribution, not talking about Linux or other Unixoid systems in 
general.

> I would rather have an application well integrated with 
> one distro/desktop than have crappy interfaces that work on all distros ,
> to not having a port available at all.

This is what you want. But if this is the way things would work, then we 
wouldn't have what we do have!

It is a staged process:

 * Someone writes software
 * Someone publishes this software
 * Many people use this software
 * Someone packages it for a specific distribution
 * The software becomes part of the specific distribution

But it still IS possible to go back, backport, port to other architectures, 
platforms, etc. ... Just depending on one's need, and for the ones who do 
know how to do it.

And it usually does not make any sense of skipping any of the stages in the 
process, as that would lead to immature software, brittle packaging, etc. It 
happens all the time, and those packages are usually not enjoyed fully by the 
community.

Guy

-- 
Guy K. Kloss
Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences
Te Kura Putaiao o Mohiohio me Pangarau
Room 2.63, Quad Block A Building
Massey University, Auckland, Albany
Private Bag 102 904, North Shore Mail Centre
voice: +64 9 414-0800 ext. 9585   fax: +64 9 441-8181
eMail: G.Kloss at massey.ac.nz  http://iims.massey.ac.nz