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Subject: Re: linux issues

Author: Vincent Diepeveen

Date: 15:09:25 05/27/02

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On May 26, 2002 at 15:06:35, Christophe Theron wrote:

Yeah Christophe, we share the same viewpoint,
but what this guy says is true. With the linux
nerds you gotta be very careful, they are willing
to start a holy war for it and will hate you rest
of their life.

I can tell you, despite using both OSes, i am
much hated in both a windows channel saying linux
was better in this, and i was completely banned
out of the linux channel in IRC, when i showed a small
thing i hated in linux. I was discussing their lack
to fix the shared memory bugs in linux, like it
doesn't give back the memory to the system, but
crashes a machine instead if you control-c diep a
few times :)

Bob smartly solved this with a script that removes
automatically the shared memory. And i still owe him
a lot for getting out of bed in the middle of th enight
and driving to the university, in order to reboot the
machine, after i control-ced diep twice (2 x 400MB = 800MB
so that crashes the kernel when the main memory is
512MB) :)

Just mentionning that they should simply implement in
kernel what is in the 'man' pages (the _anonymous memory
flag isn't implemented in linux, which forced me to
use shmat/shmget functions which can crash the kernel)
this is enough to start a holy war against a person
if the persons in questions are linux nerds :)

Bad news means signing your own death sentence.

Thing is, that with all those small things which clever
guys like Bob can fix without thinking, it is pretty
much for the average user.

But may i remind you that linux is now the fastest OS
for diep?

(of course i know i said it wrong again: GCC is fastest
compiler for me but as it runs under linux, and it
doesn't run for me under windows as god knows how to
cross compile it, this means it's fastest OS for me).

Who would have ever though that?

>On May 26, 2002 at 14:33:28, Allen Lake wrote:
>
>>On May 26, 2002 at 11:34:28, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>
>>>I started to read your message and quickly got sick of your patronizing tone.
>>>
>>>Desire to help? The only thing I have seen is your desire to nail your point of
>>>view with the biggest hammer.
>>>
>>>Maybe it's just a communication problem. I don't think you are a bad person, and
>>>you seem to know what you are talking about. But we definitely had a bad start.
>>>Maybe I'm partly responsible.
>>
>>If you thought I was patronizing or heavy-handed toward you, then I apologize
>>for the misunderstanding.  It certainly was not my intent.
>
>
>I think one thing that can be learned from this is that people develop a
>passionate relationship with the OS they use.
>
>In my opinion it makes it more unlikely that somebody used to an OS will switch
>to another one, even with strong incentive.
>
>For example I have a strong incentive to switch to Linux because I can't stand
>anymore the Microsoft dominance and above all the way they use it.
>
>But it's difficult for me to switch. I have plenty of tools under Windows and
>DOS, and I have either to port them or to abandon them and find other ones in
>order to start being productive under Linux.
>
>That's a *LOT* of work (I estimate it could take me several weeks, maybe months,
>to get back to the same productivity level) and I am a very busy guy.
>
>Maybe I'm also now too old to be able to adapt to something else (though I
>strongly hope that it is not the case because adaptability is a key quality in
>IT and I'm only 37).
>
>Also, if I succeed in switching to Linux I'll have managed to cut myself from
>the thousands of people using Windows.
>
>There is also the rampant question of the licence model under Linux. I read that
>developping an application with the KDE tools means that the developper will
>have to pay for the QT licence. More generally I do not even know when I am
>using some libraries if it is legal to use them to sell commercial applications.
>
>By saying that it is difficult for me to switch to Linux, I'm actually just
>emphasing my own shortcomings. However I believe that many people will have
>exactly the same problems. That's not related to the quality of the OS itself,
>but it will have a strong influence on its acceptance.
>
>So I believe that the people behind the developpement of Linux should really
>care a lot about Windows users wanting to make the switch. That would be a
>really good thing for everybody. But I do not see this attitude. By reading the
>various sites dedicated to Linux (those often ending in .org) I never see the
>little paragraph that is badly needed: "special note for former Windows
>users...".
>
>I have seen really good moves in the right direction lately, however. For
>example WINE is becoming better and better (even though they are still far away
>from reaching the mythical version 1.0). It is now possible with WINE and the
>help of a product from CodeWeaver to run Microsoft Office under Linux (only
>choice until a good native office package is produced for Linux).
>
>Lindows.com is trying to integrate these tools so Linux really looks like a free
>Windows.
>
>All of this is still under construction, but goes in the right direction.
>
>
>
>    Christophe



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