Re: OT linux chat

@Jeremy: I see what you're saying, though I suspect you're overstating 
the difficulty of configuring Linux as a simple desktop machine. I 
recently installed Ubuntu on a friend's old desktop to get it running 
again, and she hasn't looked back; doesn't miss Windows at all. It was 
Ubuntu out-of-the-box, as it were, no special "make it look like 
Windows" tweaks. (And this is a woman who can't figure out which cables 
from the DVD player go to which jacks on the TV.)

However, I think  that the sort of applications that scientists, 
engineers and even filmmakers run on their Beowulf clusters could be 
thought of as more *real* than the things that the majority of retail 
users do with their computers, e.g., facebook, twitter, online shopping, 
video games, etc. Oh, and porn. Let's not forget porn.

Anyway, my orientation tends to be toward high-end computing. That's the 
sort of stuff I find interesting, though I don't work in those fields 
myself. (Though graphics and video editing can consume a lot of cycles 
and memory I don't think of them as especially high-end applications.)

Jeremyhfht wrote:
> @Elliot: It has specific uses, definitely. I refer to it as a toy in the
> sense that it's not a *real* user OS. It's an OS, sure, but for reasons
> listed it's definitely not ready for "prime time". It's still a powertoy for
> powerusers, or scientists, or what have you. This doesn't mean it isn't
> awesome if you configure it properly, but it *does* mean your chances of
> configuring it properly without *a team of dedicated scientists* are very
> slim.
>
>   

-- 
Elliot Nesterman
[email protected]
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The closer you are to the code the happier you are.
                            - Ancient Geek Proverb


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