Rant about unnecessary Windoze usage

Warren Togami warren at togami.com
Wed Jan 24 21:30:56 PST 2001


I am going to be severely flamed for this, but I must say this.

I would have to disagree that Windows is unnecessary.  Yes.  I do find
Microsoft as philosophically evil and I wish they would disappear (or stop
being evil).  Unfortunately, they wont disappear anytime soon.  In the mean
time, I do believe that OSS is the way to go for ultimate freedom from
corporate abuses, cost effectiveness and all that good stuff.  I do
everything I can to advocate the effort and end this evil.

I do not become closed minded and say Windows is simple unnecessary.  The
reality of the world is that you cannot immediately convince entire
companies and schools to switch to Linux.  Microsoft did a very good job
about securing their monopoly, and all the normal people became dependent to
their Windows software.  Yes, a lot of good open source and free (beer)
software exists, like Gimp, Mozilla, Broadcast 2000, Blender, StarOffice,
but this is not enough.  A lot of this software, (mainly Groupware) in
business and education does not yet have a viable equivalent in Unix.  A lot
of good people in the community, Redhat, IBM, Ximian, Eazel, Mozilla and
OpenOffice and many others are working very hard to bring excellent software
to the open source community.  One day their efforts will make a large
impact in our cause.

Thanks for the recommendation of Quanta.  Sounds like a cool program, and
I'll be sure to try it.

I use Windows and Unix at home because I have to support both Windows and
Unix at work.  For graphics I use GIMP because it is just so flexible.  For
coding I use vi because its colors, and its quick and accessible from
anywhere through SSH, unlike proprietary GUI IDE's.  Lately I've been
experimenting with Cygwin just to see what it can do.  Cygwin is an awesome
tool in our fight against Microsoft (more about this below).  However, I
have no alternative to Lotus Notes groupware.  Ok, I don't actually use
Lotus Notes, but what if my employer did?  Or what if I wanted to play
Diablo 2?  WINE isn't very stable and doesn't allow that much network
capability yet.  Frontpage 2000 is not a bad piece of software either.  My
VTech Helio PDA sync only works in Windows, though VTech is good about open
sourcing (GPL) their VTOS operating system, GPL SDK for VTOS and supporting
the efforts to port Linux to the Helio.  Its damn cool to see Kaffe running
on Linux on my Helio.

But yeah, the only reason I'm using Outlook Express is because I'm lazy.  I
should move everything to mutt or something so I can access my e-mail from
anywhere over SSH instead of the inconvenience of VNC.  Anyone know of a
Outlook Express mailbox converter?  It would be cool if Evolution would have
a text version in order to conveniently remotely use its e-mail functions
over SSH.  (If I'm at some Windows computer lab at school or work, they
don't have an X server so I can't use Evolution.  It would be nice when
XFree86 for Windows becomes stable and usable.  More about this later when I
explain why Cygwin kicks ass.)

Anyway, I'm forced to use Windows because I must understand it (along with
Unix) well in order to do my job right.  I can't convince my
employer to convert everything to Linux.  They use groupware, and they're
dependent upon their proprietary Blackbod (sp?), Schoolmaster, Sametime
Connect and some incredibly crappy library catalog software.  I do the best
that I can, and that is doing my best to secure the hodgepodge Windows
machines while pushing hard for open source solutions to everything.  I am
making progress.  My Linux thin client application server is coming up soon.
The school loves the idea of a 25 seat lab for only $3-4,000 instead of
$25,000.  I'm also pushing hard for a Linux firewall and DHCP server.  I'm
writing tools in PHP + MySQL to make administration of IP Tables and DHCPd
easier for the other admins which is important for their acceptance.  I want
Linux desktops everywhere, but I have to admit that Linux on the desktop IS
NOT READY.

Now about the road to make it ready.  I believe that OpenOffice, Eazel
Nautilus, Mozilla, Ximian Evolution and Red Carpet are very important to the
future success of Linux (or any other alternative operating system) on the
desktop.  I don't have to explain why OpenOffice is important.  Nautilus
will be very good, because it is very pretty and functional.  Normal users
are either lazy, or stupid, or both.  They don't want to deal with a command
line or text config files.  Nautilus is a great step in that direction.
(More about GUI configurators later).  Mozilla is important because
alternate operating systems need a good browser Happy surfing is vital to
normal user happiness.  (Windows has IE, which is a good but evil,
especially in their proprietary extensions of ActiveX and VBScript... evil
evil evil).  Evolution is VERY important, especially in convincing
mainstream enterprise and education to use Linux because it solves the need
for groupware.  Though I believe Lotus will port Lotus Notes to Linux
sometime because IBM is very pro-OSS.  Red Carpet and stuff like it
(apt-get, and to a lesser degree the crappy up2date) are important because
stupid, lazy, and (and add busy to the list) busy users need the convenience
of a Windows Update type thing.

Another obstacle to Linux adoption in homes across is games.  While a few
companies did were noble and ported games to Linux, they quickly realized
that there was no market and they lost money.  Unfortunately more games for
Linux will not come in large numbers until after mainstream enterprise makes
the migration, then companies will see the market and publish Linux games.

While Nautilus is good in the user experience for Windows desktops, Linux
still lacks standard GUI configurators.  Standard GUI configurators are
going to be CRUCIAL for enterprise acceptance.  Most admins in mainstream
enterprise like their GUI configurators for their current systems, and they
will simply not accept Linux without it.  (Read: stupid, lazy and/or busy).
While there are a few decent efforts out there like Webmin and OpenNMS, we
need more collaboration and standardization of GUI configurators in order to
quickly make more inroads.  We need something like Microsoft's Management
Console with its abstracted snap-in configurators interfaces for all of our
Unix programs.  I'd hate to admit this, but MMC with their .msc snap-ins was
a damn good idea.  If OSS had a standardized, abstracted plugin architure
for GUI configurators, developers of OSS software would not have to be
continually reinvent the wheel with their many competing configurators and
concentrate on improving their core product.  With such an abstracted
configurator system in place, the core itself could easily be extended for
other types of configurators, like web based, text based, X based, etc.
THEN the average admin would be happy to use Linux software because they
have their nice pretty windows and they don't have to read HOWTOs or
anything as rediculous as that.  <shaking head in disgust>  This is why I
have to write those PHP + MySQL configurators for IP Tables and DHCPd for
the admins at my workplace to accept Linux in that server role.

I once read this article ... somewhere... (might have been OSOpinion) about
OSS on Windows being important as a migration path away from Windows.
Cygwin is important in this effort because it allows stuff like Gnome,
Evolution, GIMP and other OSS software to run on Windows.  The article said
that such a migration path is necessary because people are wary of anything
knew.  If they get used to good OSS on Windows, they may decide that the
Microsoft tax is not necessary on their next computer purchase.  Then we
win.

------
SOOO.... my entire point in this flame fest...

It is OUR JOB as OSS advocates to push Linux and other open source
technologies.  Hold demonstrations and show people how they can benefit by
using OSS.  Help schools who generally don't have enough IT money in using
Linux as a cost effective solution to their IT needs.  Show business how OSS
will save them money and time.  Show your friend how to use Linux to share
his home cable modem or DSL connection.  Support your favorite OSS
development project.  But please do not say that Windows is unnecessary.  It
is very necessary for millions of people in this world.  It is our job to
change that.

Warren Togami
warren at togami.com



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