But I’ve been playing with nix here and there since the days of the Sparcstation 5/10. I never got very far into SUN OS/Solaris, but I got pretty deep into Debian around Potato and Sarge. Compiling kernels for notebooks with wireless drivers, running KDE. I also ran a Citadel-UX Internet BBS off of FreeBSD around this time. My point is, I’m not anti-nix as a Win32 advocate. But I am very critical about the *nix community and their promises and their claims and their traditional hostility and elitist attitude toward the Win32 community, as a GROUP. I could go through my bullet list of exaggerated claims and attacks on Microsoft technology and how the *nix community likes to compare itself to Win32 as Apples to Apples until the argument doesn’t suit them, then they claim it is Apples and Oranges – but I won’t.

Instead, I’ll point out that overall, I dig Debian, and better, I think that Ubuntu really achieves bridging the gap that I always said Debian needed to cross in order to be a viable competitor to Microsoft technology on the desktop. The thing about Debian is, “it just works”. In particular, the dselect/apt-get package management impressed me far more than other *nix alternatives available at that time. What good is an OS if every time you try to install a package the .rpm has a dozen different dependencies that you have to work out, some of which inevitably require a compile? Debian took care of that hassle. But it was lacking in driver support and ease of setup. Ubuntu has done a fantastic job of addressing this – at first glance.

But then it quickly became clear that the idealistic philosophy (that is so often a *nix achillies heel) behind Ubuntu made them come up short. How ironic that if I had a high end, Intel/Nvidia system Ubuntu would have worked out fine for me (I prefer this combo, by the way. And no VIA chipset for me. Intel chipsets all the way, I’m a corporate whore through and through.) But I had picked up a POS old AMD with an ATI Rage 128 Pro chipset in it that I deemed worthy of *nix – almost MADE for each other. How ironic that this would highlight a major shortcoming of Ubuntu.

One that to me, for the average Ubuntu demographic, is a huge deal breaker. An AMD, ATI, DIY box is where nix *lives. This is core market for a *nix distro. How many people drop bleeding edge technology into a modded ultimate gaming box and then pop a *nix on it? Not many. If you’re paying more than $600+ for your system, you’re probably not going to quibble about an additional $180 for the OS. Nope. There might be a few oddballs here and there, but the AVERAGE *nix user, for one reason or another, is budget conscious and oriented across the board. And budget conscious machines often end up with ATI video cards. Now, I, perturbed, went out and bought a cheap Nvidia 5500 GeForce3 for $20 after rebate and called it a day. But even THAT is a painful purchase for a lot of the *nix people I’ve known in my life – and, really, when it SHOULD have worked better with my ATI card, it kind of offsets the value of Ubuntu. I could have gotten a graymarket OEM WinXP for about $60 more and the ATI card would have worked fine.

And so I saw this conflict for Ubuntu right away – based on what I see as silly Ubuntu core-values and philosophy. It doesn’t “just work”. It actually has some frustrating issues that don’t have to exist, but do because of idealism. And I represent a certain target market that the *nix community claims to want to convert. With my experience and background and skills, if something like this turns ME off to a *nix distro, then it is going to really have an impact on the LARGER target market you want to convert from Win32 platforms.

So this blog actually resonates with me. I think the *nix community is torn, amost bipolar. On the one hand it WANTS more market share, more penetration among these key demographics. On the other, it has a disdain for the very market it covets, for the people that market represents. I think there is a certain segment that enjoys the *nix Punk Rock/Thrash Metal effect… that is, “Linux has an aura of hipness because it is uncommon and not accepted by the average”. If you ever achieve mass acceptance, you lose that anti-chic allure. May sound like an outrageous claim, but I think it is part of this equation. Being part of the “Windows Community” just means you’re an average person in society. Being part of the *nix community means you BELONG to something. And Lord knows, a lot of *nix users need somewhere to belong. (Not that Win32 doesn’t have its fair share of anti-social, badly adjusted propeller-heads – I may very well be one of them).

My point is that Ubuntu, because of philosophy and idealism, falls short of its claimed goal – and trying to fix that shortcoming presents a huge and challenging decision to the Ubuntu community. I am shocked to read this blog, because MY feeling was that idealism would trump practical marketing decision in a *nix community (which in my mind, ultimately means that this would be another dead end *nix project and ideal).

If that isn’t the case, if the practical marketing decision trumps the idealism, that gives me hope. Ubuntu, by having flexible moralities, may have a chance at making a difference. They might get labeled a “sell out” by the TRUE hardcore element of the *nix Community… but such is the price of success.

Gentlemen, get your Flamethrowers ready. I probably won’t be returning here to follow up – just stumbled upon this thread by chance.

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…