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davbren
February 7th, 2009, 02:47 PM
Hey all!

I was innocently googling and came across this article

http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2007/07/pretty_much_anything_mac_has_l.html

I thought it would be a good talking point.

I think that he is right in saying that there is a certain Linux elitism to say the least among a minority of the community.

I do however, think he's missed the point of Linux. Nobody doubts that the Linux apps need improvement, but then so do the mac apps and Windows alike.

The very fact that Linux is free makes it fundamentally better value than windows or mac. This is regardless of the apps available or if the ilife suite is better. You still have to pay for it. There are comparable apps that do the job well on Linux. Linus has said what he says because it is true.

This is true to the extent that both Windows and mac are getting ideas from OSS development. I find it a little insulting for people to turn their noses up at something because of a few idiots in the community who want to feel special. A computer is a computer. You'll always be able to do the same/similar stuff on each platform.

We all know really that Linux needs to be easier, and with each version it gets easier...

Any thoughts on the article?

Paqman
February 7th, 2009, 03:15 PM
Seems like the whole article is a rant based on one statement from Linus Torvalds. However, the crucial point that he misses is that Torvalds is a kernel hacker.

When he says "Anything OS X can, Linux can do better" i've no doubt he's talking about them as a dev platform. Torvalds has gone on record before as saying he doesn't really care which Linux distro he uses, as all he cares about is getting to grips with the kernel anyway.

So where is the actual argument? I think the author is assuming Torvalds is saying something that he probably isn't.

jimi_hendrix
February 7th, 2009, 03:25 PM
I think that he is right in saying that there is a certain Linux elitism to say the least among a minority of the community.

thats true with anything (except macs...they are the definition elitism imo)

Bachstelze
February 7th, 2009, 03:36 PM
I said that Linux could do anything that Mac and Windows can do. But the sad story is that Linux is not currently doing a lot of what Mac and Windows is doing. Please, please, please someone show me wrong on this! Please show me a DVD authoring application on Linux that is as easy as iDVD is on Mac. Or a video editing application as easy as iMovie. Please!

That's where he fails. "What Linux can do" and "what Linux applications can do" are two things that are so far from each other that one could see the curve of the Universe between them.

Linux has the capabilities to run an advanced video editing tool. All it needs is someone to make an application for it, and that has nothing to do with Linux.

Paqman
February 7th, 2009, 03:55 PM
That's where he fails. "What Linux can do" and "what Linux applications can do" are two things that are so far from each other that one could see the curve of the Universe between them.


Depends on your point of view. IMO, the catalogue of available applications has to be taken into account when you're evaluating an OS. For example, taken as base value Windows is a terrible OS. But when you take it's excellent software library into account you have to concede that it's an extremely useful platform.

tjwoosta
February 7th, 2009, 04:00 PM
Truth 1: Anything that Windows and Mac can do, Linux could do. Notice my choice of words. I said that Linux could do anything that Mac and Windows can do. But the sad story is that Linux is not currently doing a lot of what Mac and Windows is doing. Please, please, please someone show me wrong on this! Please show me a DVD authoring application on Linux that is as easy as iDVD is on Mac. Or a video editing application as easy as iMovie. Please! Yes, I know that there is wine and you can often get Windows apps running on Linux. But 1) it’s hit or miss and 2) most of the apps that I’ve gotten to run in wine look…..let’s just say “bad” to sound polite.


linus said anything mac can do linux can do better, he did not say the same about windows

what he did say is that he does not need most of the stuff windows offers that linux doesn't (like games)


Torvalds said, “I don’t use either [Windows or Mac OS X]. OS X is kind of pointless (pretty much anything it has, Linux can do better) and Windows offers stuff that I don’t much care about (mainly games — and I’ve got games machines for those).”


yes! there are a couple of DVD authoring programs for linux that can do just as much as, if not more then iDVD


Truth 3: Linux has the bling. In my opinion, Linux is actually winning the bling war. Just check out Beryl/Compiz/Fusion. It rocks. For bling, it is (my opinion, again) unrivaled. And there are some pretty cool productivity enhancements, too. But let’s not confuse bling and even cool productivity enhancements with a usable desktop (not that Linux has an unusable desktop). They aren’t necessarily the same thing. Just because Linux has bling doesn’t mean that its applications are well integrated with one another. Or that the applications work well on their own.

yes linux does have bling and linux has productivity, but the two do not necessarily come hand in hand

if you setup your linux box to have alot of flashy bling, then chances are that it is not the most efficeint machine, but it will look nicer then the competition

if you setup your linux box for productivity while ignoring all of the bling you will end up with an extreamly stable productivity environment that could easily surpass the competition in this field

my point is that with linux its all about how you build your own box that determines how well it will compete in certail areas

(linux is the do it yourself operating system)

miggols99
February 7th, 2009, 06:00 PM
yes! there are a couple of DVD authoring programs for linux that can do just as much as, if not more then iDVD

I'm interested in seeing one of these programs...can you name some?

tjwoosta
February 7th, 2009, 06:41 PM
manDVD, qdvdauthor, devede ?

some more here http://liquidweather.net/howto/index.php?id=87

and here http://www.linux.com/feature/118910


of course the "which is better" of any software is always going to be disputed, because it is a matter of personal taste, but the point is that programs do infact exist in linux that can do all the same stuff