Linux is topic on The Connection today 10am WBUR 90.9FM

[mcmanus at AppliedTheory.com (Patrick McManus)]

In a previous episode Michael O'Donnell said...
[..]
:: He also explained how one of the primary differences between
:: Windows and Linux was that "rm is forever" whereas Windoze
:: just moves files to a TrashBin where it can be reclaimed if
:: you want to...
:: 

huh. I thought that was one of the more insightful parts of the
conversation. This is obviously a heck of a lot older than linux
though. The adage that 'unix gives you enough rope to hang yourself,
but windows doesn't give you enough to tie anything but a microsoft 1.21
boat to the dock' goes a long way towards showing why the different
systems are attractive to different people.

To me it also means that there's very little chance something like
Linux can ever dominate the desktop and still be attractive to its
original community. Its just the nature of the beast.. and its also a good
illustration of why diversity is a good thing.

Of course there are at least 2 'trashcan' types of replacements for
linux that are implemented at the application level instead of at the
operating system level.. But this odd dichotomy of having multiple
paradigms for accomplishing a single basic function in the same
operating system may be an even better indicator of social reaction to
the system.. Some folks will embrace it as 'flexibility, power, and
configurability' and some folks will deride it as 'un-necessarily
complex and not user friendly'..

I see the same thing with the Red Hat Distribution in a lot of
ways. It gets a lot of credit for streamling the system and making it
more manageable. But by the same token I've watched friends get
frustrated with all the undocumented scripts that build odd
dependencies that never existed when you hand rolled all this
stuff. (case in point, upgrading my dhcp client wasn't just a matter
of a new dhcp rpm. it involved wading through redhat init scripts to
get it to work)..

It's sad, but in a lot of ways this is a zero sum game.

-P
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