Amiga mention in LinuxToday editorial

[OSS542]

In case anyone is interested, an editorial suggesting that the Linux desktop should look to the Amiga for inspiration appears at LinuxToday.com:

LinuxToday Editorial

[AeroMan]

Awesome !! It captures my feelings about Linux and Amiga.
Even considering the comments are a little bit old

[alexatkin]

It certainly should look to something.

I find Linux really handy but its still much more rough around the edges than Windows.  Some of this is due to its open mix-and-match philosophy, so things aren't as tightly integrated as they could be.  But some of it I think is not, they are simply trying to outshine MacOS, Vista etc and failing miserably.

How I wish AmiWM was still being improved.  If it was a full desktop suite instead of simply a window manager I would probably use it.

I use KDE4 now but I still think KDE and Gnome are just too heavy and the rest seem too light.  I am yet to find a happy medium that hits the spot.

[cybernoid]

I don't think Linux is a copy of Windows or Mac (in fact Windows 7 seems a copy of KDE 4),
And I am sure it's a lot more organized than
Windows. There's more than 500 unknown megas of dll inside C:Windows! In Linux, every library has it's own manual.

Last 2 years I had O.N.E. crash in my home-PC. Of course I am not Windows user.

If theres a Linux Distro close to mac os x, windows, etc, that's just the interface.

Workbench is the most user friendly OS of all I tried yet. Very easy. I miss it a lot. Waiting for 4.1-386 (because it would be cheaper and faster.)

[Fransexy_]

How I wish AmiWM was still being improved. If it was a full desktop suite instead of simply a window manager I would probably use it.

Then Anubis OS is for you

[weirdami]

Then Anubis OS is for you

pfft. "is".

[stefcep2]

been searching for that Amiga feel for years but there is only one Amiga.  As far as Linux goes, anyone who thinks its intuitive to have a system folder called "etc" is just kidding themselves.    Linux is designed so that its neigh on impossible for the average user to install anything on their own, unless someone has packaged it for them previously. And then you have to sometimes BEG to get their distro Guru to do it:  i tried to get E-Uae packaged for PCLOS, but they didn't like a few home truths i said about their distro and so they ignored it.  Linux fans use Linux simply because its not a MS product, not because they enjoy it.  A single 50k system file that's one version too old will stop it from booting, and believe me installing something as innocuous as a 500k emulator will do it. Its just a real shame that the open-source movement has selected this OS to work on.  The hype and fanboyism for Linux has genuinely held back the development of alternatives to windows.

At one point didn't Amiga Inc as part of Gateway want the next AmigaOS to be based on Linux?  Amiga users didn't want a bar of it, but having the device drivers from the Linux with the Amiga look and feel on top, with UAE, would have made a lot of sense

[kolla]

Ye-ye, blame linux for unix legacy.

Not like the tripos one-letter names in AmigaOS is any better - C, S, L, T - yes, very intuitive, not  :-P

[uncleted]

Linux fans use Linux simply because its not a MS product, not because they enjoy it.

I use GNU/Linux because it's an excellent product.  It's amazing for doing development with, the desktop is fast and stable, and installing and updating software is stupidly easy (with apt anyway.)  Not to say it's perfect, but it's hard to argue that any OS really is.

I don't care about Windows being an MS product, since I've had a job for years thanks to them.

Your experience is exclusive to you, just because you've had trouble doesn't mean everyone else does.

I run Linux, MacOS X, Windows and AROS at home (and OS 3.9 too.)

[Piru]

@stefcep2

Linux fans use Linux simply because its not a MS product, not because they enjoy it.

Bollocks. I run MorphOS, Debian GNU/Linux, Windows XP and Mac OS X (all those natively, I'm not counting the virtual machines here). Out of these Linux is the obvious server OS choice.

I prefer the best tool for the job. If that's M$ product I have no problem with it.

A single 50k system file that's one version too old will stop it from booting

That's why any proper distro has dependicies. apt is your friend.

[kolla]

"Gentoo for you, Ubuntu for your grandmother" ;-)

But yeah, let me join in the crowd of amiga users that also enjoy Linux. I have been running Linux on my old A1200 for more than a decade, and it's been a joy ride. Ofcourse Linux certainly has its issues on the desktop, but I _much_ more prefer Linux over any incarnation of Windows or MacOS.

I run my own gentoo setup on my ibook, my eeepc-901, 2 A1200 systems, a quadra 910, Linsys NSLUs, my Nintendo GameCube, the Wii, xbox, the PS3 before I gave it away, my zaurus, a few more PCs and a virtual machines and tings I've forgotten (oh yes, gumstix, asus wlhdd etc) - I also have between 10 and 15 working amigas (A500, A600, A1200s, A3000s, A4000s, CD32s) that are running (mostly) AmigaOS, MorphOS and even a PC where I test AROS... it's all for fun :-)

[AeroMan]

I´ve tried Ubuntu for some time, then I switched back to Kurumin, because it crashed a lot in my machine. I can´t say it was an experience I would recommend to my grandma.

I think Linux is too much tied to the command line, and this is something I believe should be left on the past. Looking from this side, Windows is more friendly.

The last Mac I had used OS9, so I can´t say anything about OSX at all. Except that it looks nice ;-)

But anyway, I still think Workbench was the best in my opinion. Of course, we all know about the technology gap caused by not developing anything new all those years. This still doesn´t change my mind.

So I agree with them, let Linux looks like WB. This is something my grandma would use  :-D

[benJamin]

I think Linux is too much tied to the command line, and this is something I believe should be left on the past. Looking from this side, Windows is more friendly.

There are things that can't be done in Windows unless you hit the prompt.

I've also spent a lot of my Amiga time in the Shell with scripts and ARexx, and couldn't imagine having a system without it.

Finally, with the wrong distro, Linux is admittedly heavy on the shell, but most of the newer community distros aim to cover the majority of settings with strong defaults or a GUI: it's only when doing something out-of-the-ordinary that will bring you back down to the shell.  Look at the Eee for example: like the Amiga of old, all standard kit which you can expect to be there, all specified parts are known.  The release distro is targeted specifically for those parts and everything 'just works'.

And that's what this whole game is usually about: it should 'just work'.  This is why the Mac is making ground at the moment, and why the Amiga was so strong in the past where games were concerned (before the console industry strengthened enough).

If you read this far... I think I'll just sign off here.


jaminJay

[stefcep2]

c= "command"
s="start up"
L= "fiLesytems"
T="temporary files".  tell me once and I can remember it. Which is easier to remember: "startup-sequence" versus menu1st.  

In Linux

etc="anything else we don't know what to do with or where to put goes in here"

oh yeah here's another one: modem port on Amiga= serial.device, in Linux ttyusb0blahblahbla..

And the app names k3b?  thats cd/dvd burner software, really intuitive name ..

Limited to my experience?  Go on the forums for each and every distro out there.  See how many posts there are from people wanting to do really simple things, and the long-winded, sudo this sudo that, cut and paste of commands you will never remeber or know what they mean, editing of Xorg.conf files, kernel options etc..  Linux's ONLY advantages over a 20 year old OS like AmigaOS are memory protection and it runs on cheap modern intel/x86 hardware and its free.  Thats it.

[stefcep2]

@jaminjay

And that's what this whole game is usually about : it should 'just work'. This is why the Mac is making ground at the moment, and why the Amiga was so strong in the past where games were concerned (before the console industry strengthened enough).

thats Linux's catch cry.  except it "just doesn't" far too often for the average user..