Disillusioned with Linux 5278

On Sun, 23 Oct 2005 22:22:38 -0500, mst

Like the original poster, I am a long-time Linux user. For three years my home machine ran only Linux. And now when I go to work it's usually on either a Debian or a Fedora machine (or, occasionally, Solaris). But starting a year ago, all of my personal computing - email, web browsing, music, and so on - has been on a laptop running OS X.

For many people, the decision to leave Linux isn't a question of technical email), but rather a question of time. Back in high school I had plenty of time to mess around with makefiles and to try to get an mplayer plugin working in Mozilla just right, but as a college student I simply have other priorities. It's a cost-benefit decision: Is the cost of a non-Free operating system less valuable than the amount of time it will take to configure and maintain a Linux distribution to my liking? For me, the answer was yes.

GNU-Linux is an excellent and highly-configurable operating system, but there is still room for it to grow, especially on the desktop. Plugging your ears and insisting that no long-time Linux veteran could possibly be dissatisfied with the state of Linux's usability or, worse, simply insinuating that anybody who doesn't "get it" is simply stupid, is more than immature: It's a disservice to GNU-Linux and to the community at large.

That said, this topic would perhaps be more appropriate in comp.os.linux.advocacy and, at any rate, the original poster surely should have foreseen the flame war that would ensue. So you all have your fun now. :)

-- Mark Shroyer