Giving up on Linux...

[Andre Costa]

(I know this is sort of "old news" by now, but I am catching up after a
2-day holiday, and I really would like to post my $0.02)

On Sun, 22 Feb 2004 12:12:41 +0100
Jos Vos <jos at xos.nl> wrote:

> On Sun, Feb 22, 2004 at 12:52:16PM +0200, xyzzy at hotpop
[...]
> > However, even with all of M$ garbage, the bottom line is that their
> > garbage works on my system and Linux does not.
> 
> Yes, and this is *not* because M$ is good and Linux is bad, but
> because those manufacturers have "close cooperations" with M$ and
> don't care(or are not allowed to care!!!) about Linux.

I couldn't agree more. It has always been like this, and, even though
it's been slowly changing (you see companies like Dell, NVidia and
Intel, among others, dedicating personnel to improve Linux and guarantee
it is compatible with their products), a lot is still done as
reverse-engineering (or sometimes "blind-engineering") when it comes to
supporting bleeding-edge (or maybe even plainly "unusual") hardware.

This of course doesn't apply to MS, with its mentioned "close
cooperation" with hardware manufacturers -- and this cooperation doesn't
even has to be paid for sometimes, because it's on the best interest of
hardware manufacturers that the world's best selling OS works on their
products.

Anyway, it shouldn't sound awkward that Linux needs sometime to catch up
with bleeding-edge hardware if you consider it is developed and
maintained generally by voluntaries scattered around the world, with no
relationship to hardware manufacturers whatsoever (aside from the
honorable exceptions mentioned above).

This, of course, doesn't mean you don't have the right to be pissed off
because Linux doesn't work on your new hardware. Just make sure you
understand the reasons why, don't spread FUD and don't completely give
up on it (give it another try later on).

Best,

Andre

-- 
Andre Oliveira da Costa