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You completely missed the point of this article, which I find odd because the author clearly explained why he compared Android with desktop Linux. By "Linux on

by cmelbye 16y ago

You completely missed the point of this article, which I find odd because the author clearly explained why he compared Android with desktop Linux. By "Linux on the desktop", he means Linux on regular Joe's desktop, not the hacker's desktop. The author agrees with you that Linux is made for people like you that want/need the extra control, etc, whatever. This is not what the majority are looking for in a desktop distribution.

sprout 16y ago
The only reason I don't recommend desktop Linux to people is that explaining ubuntu-restricted-extras to them is too much work. Other than that it 'just works' out of the box and anyone who is currently using Windows XP should upgrade.
- neilc 16y ago
  anyone who is currently using Windows XP should upgrade Can we stop this silly meme of calling a switch between two unrelated products an "upgrade"? WinXP => Linux is an "upgrade" that has 0% software compatibility, and requires a massive amount of retraining and reconfiguration. Which is to say, it isn't an "upgrade" at all.
  - etfb 16y ago
    ...has 0% software compatibility, and requires a massive amount of retraining and reconfiguration... Naaah. Too easy. No comment.
  - sprout 16y ago
    There are a variety of accepted definitions of upgrade, and most of them agree with my usage. Only one agrees with your 'correct' usage. Ubuntu is a software platform that provides improved performance in a variety of ways, including 90% software compatibility, since most of the important software is web, Flash, or Java based. (Of course, I'm talking about home use.) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/upgrade http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/upgrade http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/upgrade http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/upgrade
davidw 16y ago
I run the web site for a friend who has an antique book store here in Padova. He is not a power user kind of guy. And his friend put Ubuntu on his laptop after he got sick of getting viruses and random problems. So far, he's quite happy with it - which honestly surprised me, because I don't really push people to convert to Linux (I don't like doing desktop support). It's surprisingly good these days, though, and continues to improve.
irrelative 16y ago
I think it's a little harsh to say that I "completely missed the point" of this article. I get it -- Apple products are very polished and carefully designed and the Android lacks that polish but is feature rich. Is that an accurate description, or did I completely miss something else? Marco is a developer with some very successful products, and I really respect his work. I feel that makes him influential in the hacker community and this post did make it rather high on HN. However, respecting Apple's products has gone too far when I can barely tell it from a PR piece. I don't know what it is, but it's not news. I really don't want to begin discussing regular Joe's desktop experience -- summarizing people into 2 camps trivializes the actual wants and needs of a computer user. What I can tell you is that on a site devoted to hacker news, this post seems like 'dog bites man' with an easy shot at a strawman. I don't mean this to be a biting criticism. As a developer, I just wish that I had started using linux earlier because I would have learned a lot more and it would be more second nature. Out there, someone 10 years younger than me is being turned off from using linux on the desktop because of posts like this, and that's a shame.
- sandee 16y ago
  > As a developer, I just wish that I had started using linux earlier because I would have learned a lot more and it Total agree. After years of windows, i moved to Linux Desktop since last 2 years. How i wish, i had done that earlier.
- Robin_Message 16y ago
  > I think it's a little harsh to say that I "completely missed the point" of this article. I get it -- Apple products are very polished and carefully designed and the Android lacks that polish but is feature rich. Is that an accurate description, or did I completely miss something else? What you are missing is that what you are calling "polish" is 90% of the quality of a product to a consumer. It's not about gradients or drop shadows. It's about saying no in the development process, and making sure everything just works. To give a counter-example of polish, here is a problem I had on my work machine. It was recently upgraded to Fedora Core 11, a seemingly sensible choice. When I first logged in, the volume control mumbled something about having been deleted. I had a look for another one, only to discover that there is no simple volume control. For some development reason, which I don't give a shit about, someone has removed the existing volume control, and some other subsystem is meant to provide one, but they haven't gotten around to it yet. That is why Linux on the desktop is dead, and as long as Linux is developed in the bazaar, it will always be dead (but great for geeks!)

by cmelbye 16y ago

sprout 16y ago

The only reason I don't recommend desktop Linux to people is that explaining ubuntu-restricted-extras to them is too much work. Other than that it 'just works' out of the box and anyone who is currently using Windows XP should upgrade.

neilc 16y ago
anyone who is currently using Windows XP should upgrade Can we stop this silly meme of calling a switch between two unrelated products an "upgrade"? WinXP => Linux is an "upgrade" that has 0% software compatibility, and requires a massive amount of retraining and reconfiguration. Which is to say, it isn't an "upgrade" at all.
- etfb 16y ago
  ...has 0% software compatibility, and requires a massive amount of retraining and reconfiguration... Naaah. Too easy. No comment.
- sprout 16y ago
  There are a variety of accepted definitions of upgrade, and most of them agree with my usage. Only one agrees with your 'correct' usage. Ubuntu is a software platform that provides improved performance in a variety of ways, including 90% software compatibility, since most of the important software is web, Flash, or Java based. (Of course, I'm talking about home use.) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/upgrade http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/upgrade http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/upgrade http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/upgrade

davidw 16y ago

I run the web site for a friend who has an antique book store here in Padova. He is not a power user kind of guy. And his friend put Ubuntu on his laptop after he got sick of getting viruses and random problems. So far, he's quite happy with it - which honestly surprised me, because I don't really push people to convert to Linux (I don't like doing desktop support). It's surprisingly good these days, though, and continues to improve.

irrelative 16y ago

I think it's a little harsh to say that I "completely missed the point" of this article. I get it -- Apple products are very polished and carefully designed and the Android lacks that polish but is feature rich. Is that an accurate description, or did I completely miss something else? Marco is a developer with some very successful products, and I really respect his work. I feel that makes him influential in the hacker community and this post did make it rather high on HN. However, respecting Apple's products has gone too far when I can barely tell it from a PR piece. I don't know what it is, but it's not news. I really don't want to begin discussing regular Joe's desktop experience -- summarizing people into 2 camps trivializes the actual wants and needs of a computer user. What I can tell you is that on a site devoted to hacker news, this post seems like 'dog bites man' with an easy shot at a strawman. I don't mean this to be a biting criticism. As a developer, I just wish that I had started using linux earlier because I would have learned a lot more and it would be more second nature. Out there, someone 10 years younger than me is being turned off from using linux on the desktop because of posts like this, and that's a shame.

sandee 16y ago
> As a developer, I just wish that I had started using linux earlier because I would have learned a lot more and it Total agree. After years of windows, i moved to Linux Desktop since last 2 years. How i wish, i had done that earlier.
Robin_Message 16y ago
> I think it's a little harsh to say that I "completely missed the point" of this article. I get it -- Apple products are very polished and carefully designed and the Android lacks that polish but is feature rich. Is that an accurate description, or did I completely miss something else? What you are missing is that what you are calling "polish" is 90% of the quality of a product to a consumer. It's not about gradients or drop shadows. It's about saying no in the development process, and making sure everything just works. To give a counter-example of polish, here is a problem I had on my work machine. It was recently upgraded to Fedora Core 11, a seemingly sensible choice. When I first logged in, the volume control mumbled something about having been deleted. I had a look for another one, only to discover that there is no simple volume control. For some development reason, which I don't give a shit about, someone has removed the existing volume control, and some other subsystem is meant to provide one, but they haven't gotten around to it yet. That is why Linux on the desktop is dead, and as long as Linux is developed in the bazaar, it will always be dead (but great for geeks!)