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Technology Stocks : LINUX -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JC Jaros who wrote (859)	1/14/1999 7:25:00 AM
From: E. Charters	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2617

Linux will not take that per cent of the home user market unless the interface that simplifies the command structure and navigation methods of the operating system improves about 300%. You have to have better search and find and map methods now for all directory structures on all OS's. Furthermore, those structures have to have a graphical interface with a help file to methods of implementation. Mouse and window features, while capable in some ways can be vastly improved. Virtual console or screen systems with acres of space need taming and should be controllable from the desktop. Manuals need to be updated, indexed and demystified. Programming complexity of the GUI and just plain interoperation of GUI programs needs great simplification manoeuvres. A return to client server central OS control of the windowing system would put an imprint on the control structure that would prevent X-OS crashes and conflicts that exist now and open up fast program development. This would make Linux a dominant force. Beos is more capable now graphically than Linux and could soon catch up in other areas. If Linux does forges ahead with a better GUI project then it could forestall its eventual failure in the home market. Right now its a home fad .. a hula hoop with no obvious advantage to the home user and many warts. But in the server network and power world it shines. It is time that serious people took a frank look at its deficiencies and rolled up their sleeves to fix them. Does anybody really believe that Berlin is going to be on time for that? Or that 600 MBs of Gnome code is the answer? Where Linux will dominate is where is will replace more expensive and buggy Unixes in place now where it is accepted that professional administration people are needed anyway and the mix of programs used is small. In an organization where ten people work and are networked with high end firmware that costs 50K and there is a need for development flexibility and 24/7 reliability, Linux has a good niche. Such ware has to be one-off developed anyway and requires file interface structures like large html farms and the like that Linux can serve cheaply. With such advantages Linux's more poorly served document canned presentation building tools can be learned and the adjustment made to the OS. The other spots that it is needed is in set-it and forget-it machines that need to be remote manipulated and monitored on server locations and networking solutions. Traveller's SOHO is an example. Its interfacing capabilities to other machines on a network ready-to-go can be leveraged by many users. Linux is more upscale capability than hacker/home-user. It has the smarts if you do. Easy to wangle you way around it is not. But MS trap-the-user's-software-and-quit is also not. Every day we are hearing of some unfortunate company that gets Microsofted into oblivion by some upgrade new workalike feature of MS that does the same thing and disables the competitor. Just the other day I ran into a situation where a guy tried to install lap link on two windows 98 machines with a fresh 98 install. Both machines froze and required a complete reinstall of the OS when lap link was initiated. It seems that MS did not want that program to displace "direct cable". One size fits all is expensive in the long run. mailto:echarter@vianet.on.ca Operating Paradigms for the 21st Century Inc.