[Tfug] "Linux is a forking mess."

[Rich]

On Jul 20, 2007, at 12:56 am, Robert Hunter wrote:

This appears to be the root of your argument:

> And how much did you pay for this software?  What more do you want?

Some people invest quite a lot of money in free software. I'm saying  
Ashley bought RHEL, but it probably took him a while to get it  
working right. If time is money, then how much do you pay for your  
free software?

You're conveniently forgetting that "free" has meanings other than  
"costless", and all of them are relevant to Linux.

> Well, I'm glad that you've worked out that you are not a Linux  
> fan.  So, that raises the question:  what brings you to TFUG?

While we're putting words in each others' mouths, I suppose you think  
there's only One True Way to Linux Fandom and it's your way or the  
highway? No, this is a broad church -- or if religion ain't your  
thing: this is a restaurant that caters to meat eaters, raw foodists  
and everyone in between.

I *partially* agree with Ashley that there is too much bickering over  
worthless nuances. Actually, it's the publicity that's given to such  
bickering. I'm sure corporations have their share of in-house  
ideological bickering over some feature or other, but these are  
regulated by good management, not by blog commenters...

A perfect example: I can't recommend Debian to anyone other than  
someone who's already very familiar with Linux, because of dogmatic  
crap like "Iceweasel". It's like that bloody Basil Fawlty saying  
"Don't mention the war!", ffs. If it weren't for that embarrassment,  
Debian would perfect for the desktop.

R.