I’m (not) linux

First of all, this picture cracks me up. For those that missed it the first time, the tron guy page is here: TRONcostume

And I would love to dedicate three pages worth of text regarding my complex relationship to Linux, but I’m in the middle of focusing here, and will offer just a couple of generalizations for now.

I would really like to be into an open source operating system. I would use it, I would donate, I would evangelize, I would blog tips, hang out in forums, the whole nine yards. Except I don’t really like *this* open source operating system. I’m not a fan of unix styles including commands, syntax and configuration; I have a philosophical problem with a macrokernel architecture; I think splitting the UI camps into Gnome vs KDE is idiotic. It just isn’t me — I doesn’t fit right.

I always hoped another competitor would emerge that I could get behind like Haiku, which is modeled on BeOS or ReactOS which is a Windows clone.

The counter argument is that someone like Ubuntu will come along and make it irrelevant, hide the terminal, support drivers, etc. Except that is just not plausible in the next five years. Being a power user, I’ll always need to get under that hood, no matter how glossy it may be. The beauty of the computer industry is though is that I’d be a fool to predict more than five years out. Anything can happen and I hope that the universe shifts around me to reveal my preferences in all things OS related.

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3 comments

  1. Interesting take on things. As it happens, my programming and server work gets done on Linux, while my desktops are Macs. I do think that a Unix base to an OS gives it a lot of power and security, though I’m waiting for an open-source approach similar to OS X that jettisons X for a simplified, unified GUI. The thing I like most about OS X is that it’s a Unix that anyone can install and administer.

    You might be interested in the discussion of OSes in Eric S. Raymond’s book, The Art of Unix Programming. It’s in chapter 3.

    I’ll also point out Henry Spencer’s saying, “Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.”

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