Peeve Farm

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Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets

  Blog \Blôg\, n. [Jrg, fr. Jrg. "Web-log".
     See {Blogger, BlogSpot, LiveJournal}.]
     A stream-of-consciousness Web journal, containing
     links, commentary, and pointless drivel.

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Wednesday, February 27, 2002
01:35 - Project Coursey, Part II: Linux for a Month? http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2851256,00.html	(top)
The bent from ZDNet columnist David Coursey is now officially from the post-Mac-conversion perspective, it seems; for the first time in a while, he's posted an article that seems to have little to do with his vaunted "Month on a Mac" experiment, but much to do with a new battle line: Desktop Linux. Now that Coursey has apparently decided rather firmly that the Mac platform, while maybe not what he'll be using from now on as an ardent and unfailing zealot, is at least something for which he has a healthy amount of respect and enjoys using, he's ready to make a bold statement: that Linux on the desktop is a doomed proposal, a "non-starter". He challenges the Linux-heads in his TalkBack forums to "just go away" and harangue someone else, because he's sick of hearing about it. It's like McCarthyism in the post-Soviet era: it just doesn't make sense anymore. Needless to say, the TalkBack for this article is full of exactly those Linux-heads, haranguing him for daring to make such a closed-minded point as that StarOffice is now going to be sold for money-- actual valuable legal tender-- and therefore can no longer serve as "proof" that the open-source development model works (never mind that it was never open-source or independently developed in the first place). Predictably, the TalkBack dwellers are challenging Coursey to spend a Month on Linux, now that he's done that for the Mac. Put your money where your big dumb corporate-whore mouth is, David! they shout. No doubt he expected this reaction, and I'm sure he'll take it exactly as seriously as he would an e-mail from an individual threatening to punch himself in the face if his demands aren't met. He doesn't need to take anyone up on this; we already know what the result would be, and I think most Linux users do too-- the smart ones, anyway. They know that Linux simply can't compete in the desktop market; if Coursey's analyses of Windows vs. the Mac hinge upon the ease of importing his Palm contacts into Office and the ease of organizing digital photos and burning DVDs, then nobody can honestly expect him to put up with pretending StarOffice is the same thing as Office, or installing software with `rpm`, or configuring NFS or Samba to try to do file-sharing. It's just not gonna happen. Further, the controversy and distraction the issue creates takes attention from Linux as a server OS, where it really shines and provides a real alternative to Microsoft products. David's turning out to be a damned fine observer of industry trends and the strengths of various platforms. As I've said before, Linux-- and all the bare UNIX flavors-- are server operating systems. Anything developed in the open-source model is by its very nature better suited to be a server platform, whereas in order to make desktop software you've got to pay developers to adhere to design guidelines and license codecs and meet schedules and do all that tedious "money" stuff that makes so many idealists weep and gnash their teeth. I just wish they'd accept this, and focus on making sure Linux leverages its natural advantages over Windows in the server market, rather than wasting energy trying to make Linux be successful on the desktop, where it has no natural advantages and many natural disadvantages. Coursey finishes his rather brusque article by admonishing the Linux-heads to bite the bullet and accept that a good desktop OS is going to cost money-- and if what they want is a UNIX-based platform on which they can compile stuff, with an open-source foundation and corporate backing to provide a stable source of support, and that involves sticking it to Microsoft, then surely Mac OS X is the ideal choice. Sure, it means spending money. But, guys, that's what makes the world go 'round. SGI and Apple and HP and Microsoft aren't stupid. Every one of them understands the necessities of how much money they have to spend to make the desktop computing experience tenable. Not one of them has concluded that their goals can be accomplished by not paying their employees any money to develop the software. Call me crazy, but this has to be significant.