Linux Foundation 2021 annual report

Posted Dec 9, 2021 13:37 UTC (Thu) by anselm (subscriber, #2796)
In reply to: Linux Foundation 2021 annual report by khim
Parent article: Linux Foundation 2021 annual report

Which is not true today and wasn't true for last 30 years.

Speak for yourself. I've personally been using Linux as a desktop operating system for almost 30 years now. This includes hundreds of professional presentations as well as the production of typeset copy for several books by high-profile publishers such as O'Reilly and a few years' worth of issues of an amateur astronomy magazine, among many other things.

I also support a number of people (family and friends) who use Linux as their day-to-day operating system, for tasks like web browsing, word processing, e-mail, editing digital photographs, etc., some of them on computers that by today's standards are fairly low-range.

In my experience, desktop Linux requires very little ongoing maintenance (certainly not more than one would expect with comparable Windows machines) and “my” user community is quite happy with it. They especially appreciate that updates are generally very smooth, that malware isn't a real issue, and that they're not compelled to buy new hardware every few years. This doesn't look like an unusable system to me.

Linux Foundation 2021 annual report

Posted Dec 9, 2021 14:54 UTC (Thu) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] (1 responses)

> This doesn't look like an unusable system to me.

It's not unsable (I use it for last 10 year almost exclusively), just not eminently capable.

Indeed, the harassers start their piece from the following passage:

> The Linux Foundation has published its annual report today. LWN calls it glossy and yeah, boy, it is shiny.

> So shiny that people that work in the publishing industry immediately see this has been produced with the Adobe toolchain which - unfortunately - is one of the big suites of software not yet available for Linux.

IOW: they know Linux is not “eminently capable” and “immediately see” that annual report was produced without trying to portray desktop Linux as something else then what it is.

Then they make a big deal out of that. Why? If they know Linux is not suitable for Joe Average then why do they expect Linux Foundation members would use it not where it works and where it shines but where you can kinda-sorta-maybe make it work… if your pain tolerance is high enough?

> This includes hundreds of professional presentations as well as the production of typeset copy for several books by high-profile publishers such as O'Reilly and a few years' worth of issues of an amateur astronomy magazine, among many other things.

So what? O'Reilly existed before Personal Computer in general or IBM PC in particular, before MacOS or Windows. Which means that at one point it was possible to create a book suitable for publishing there without using these tools. Most likely still possible.

But for last 30 years publishing industry standard was Macintosh. Means it's just natural to use Macintosh for publishing and not natural to use Linux.

Harassing of Linux Foundation members wouldn't change it. Even basic things which were solved in MacOS years ago (in ad-hoc fashion in XX century, and in centralized session about 10 years ago) are still under active development today on Linux.

And after these basic things would be fixed you would need apps which can use all that. Which are in wide assortiment on macOS and practically don't exist on Linux.

Yes, you can make a magazine with Linux. But you also can do it with Unix System 7 and nroff. Why don't you propose Linux Foundation guys to go this route?

Linux Foundation 2021 annual report

Posted Dec 9, 2021 23:30 UTC (Thu) by anselm (subscriber, #2796) [Link]

And after these basic things would be fixed you would need apps which can use all that. Which are in wide assortiment on macOS and practically don't exist on Linux.

You're sounding like those people who insist bumble-bees can't fly because of physics. In the meantime, folks – even and especially folks who aren't uber-geeks – are using Linux on the desktop every day and are happy. Get used to it.

Yes, you can make a magazine with Linux. But you also can do it with Unix System 7 and nroff. Why don't you propose Linux Foundation guys to go this route?

Because they're the Linux Foundation, not the Unix System 7 Foundation or the Nroff Foundation. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned the people at the Linux Foundation can use whatever they please. One may be excused, however, for idly wondering if it wouldn't strengthen their message if – seeing they're the Linux Foundation and all that – they, well, used Linux more.