you being a power-user!
here's ESR (not necessarily the best techie out there, i admit!) on CUPS: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cups-horror.html (an interesting review: http://daringfireball.net/2004/04/spray_on_usability)
> Criticizing Linux hardware support as compared to Win's is not sportsmanlike
> behavior because, as you know, the vendors have to do their part too. Now it's
> easy to get them to do the work for Win32 -- the money's all there. But getting
> them to do it for GNU/Linux isn't always easy. There's a lot of politics and
> reverse engineering needed behind the scenes that Redmond simply never, ever,
> ever has to do.
>
> Cause they own the road down which the vehicles roll.
>
> Similarly, there's a heavy dose of un-charitability in evidence when you say, as
> you did, that GAIM is all kinds of wrong because it can't do the loop-dee-loops
> your native Win32 Trillian (or pick your fave chat client) can do. That is true,
> oh so true but GAIM is working against a lot of head wind. Slack should be cut
> my brother.
>
> You're right on just about all your technical counts but to my way of thinking
> the big picture is being neglected: people are trying to make a thing work with a
> huge bag of liabilities dragging them down. <...>
all true. i did not and do not hold back respect from the GNU folks (in particular), or the linux or mozilla crowd. these guys work hard and produce excellent software.
i use freeBSD on my desktop. i use and evangelize mozilla (and have even been flamed on this list in response ;-)). i am glad to rally around the cause and all that good stuff.
the discussion however is not how microsoft got to where it is (you are right in your answer to that question). the question is this: is linux on its way to dominating the desktop? while i would love to see that happen, i do not see enough signs of it. only in the cases where i can handhold the individual, do i feel comfortable recommending linux to non-tech friends.
i'll come clean on another front: my fondness for freebsd/linux/mozilla is more because of what [i believe] they embody than because of usability and functionality (there is another reason: my own background leads me to choose unix-like OSs for technical reasons). i think open source, *even* if it lacks the features of proprietary stuff, is valuable for more important reasons (collective effort, etc). i am a part (or at least can be) of the making of the things i use. this sort of sentimental primitivism is terribly unfashionable, i am afraid, on this list.
--ravi