Discussion on:

Multimedia: A Linux Achilles' heel

It is amazing to me how "diverse" the experience of the user is, depending on a distro. I'm using Arch, and I have none of the problems you had. Right now, without any effort, banshee and flash coexist and can play together, not that I get why you would listen to two audio sources at once without a very special "need". I tried it, just to see if I had a similar problem after reading your post. Things run good, period.

I you ask me, that is where Linux has a problem. Try one distro, get one set of problems, and your choice is either to blame "Linux" entirely, or understand that it's the distros specific quirks. Change distro, and you get something else to fiddle with. (I don't fiddle much with Arch. Set it up a year ago, never fooled with anything since then.)

For someone just trying Linux (any distro), without much knowledge, that person will be wondering why one bug is here, but another bug is there... assuming they'll try another distro at all.

That's where Windows is "better". If something sucks, it sucks everywhere and users will just "accept" the problem as "the way it is". The uniform experience makes users feel less confused, and like they're not getting screwed, even when it's a negetive experience. Also, what is good on Windows is good all around. Never neglect the effect of uniformity on user perception.

But then, if distros all offered a unified experience, there wouldn't be so many distros (maybe just one), so I might be wrong here. But then, look at BSDs, there aren't that many between them, and they resemble each other more than linux distros do. Maybe there's something to be said about that.

I'll just end this by saying I really appreciate Arch for it's simplicity and elegance (understood as the Arch Way. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/The_Arch_Way ).

Get rid of peoples stupid assumption that every distro is the same.

It reminds me of all those support calls I get that say something like "Microsoft isn't working".

Would you change the name to a symbol (like, maybe - ^ - or ~ [1]) and call it "The Kernel Formerly Known As Linux?"

Seriously, going from a bazillion flavours of Linux to a bazillion strangely named "Operating Systems" I don't really think would change the perspective all that much. This is, of course, IMHO, and I could be "full of condensed milk" as my father-in-law used to say.

Laterz!

[1] Update: It seems unicode characters copied from Linux pastes OK into a Win7 Virtual Machine but won't display in the post - must be filtered. Let's try "normal" ones...Drat! Even the 8th bit is filtered! So much for {Alt}+{NumPad}, altho it still works in Win7!

Have you tried that new Kernel32 system? Its up to version 6.1.

"Linux" is a kernel. There is no "Linux" operating system, period. There's a Debian, an Ubuntu, a Fedora, a Gentoo, an Arch, a Bodhi, a Mint, a PCLinuxOS, a MEPIS, a SUSE (I think that's how they're capitalizing it these days), a CentOS, a Slackware, an Android . . . a FreeBSD, a Plan9, a Haiku, an OpenBSD, an MS Windows 7, an MS Windows XP, an Apple MacOS X, a Solaris, an HP-UX, and a metric crapton of other OSes. Those before the ellipsis points happen to use variations on a Linux kernel, but they are absolutely not "the Linux OS". Calling them all "the Linux OS", collectively, is like calling all the languages of India "the Indian language". It's absurd. Grab two speakers of randomly selected languages of India and put them in a room together, and they very well might be mutually unintelligible.

The answer to the question "But what would you call it then?" is "Nothing. There is no 'it'."

There is no spoon. It's a trick your mind and the propagandists are playing on you. Stop lying to yourself.

Now . . . there is a Linux community, on the other hand. It's really that community that is creating the problems Jack observes with "Linux". For instance, PulseAudio didn't need to be invented, and it sure as heck didn't need to be something that fits into the existing sound "architecture" of many Linux-based systems ("architecture" having scare quotes because the sound "architecture" is kinda like the "architecture" of a bunch of barnacles growing several layers deep on a ship that hasn't moved in eight years -- including the fact that this "architecture" isn't the same on any two boats, or on any two operating systems that happen to use a Linux kernel). There is a deep sickness in the Linux community that leads to desperately awful inconsistencies even within a single distribution's configuration, rapid and wholly unnecessary turnover in system components, contradictory paths forward in UI design, tremendous unnecessary complexity, and so on. The results are not just problems with multimedia support, as Jack would have it.

(One of the first three things the Linux community should do if it wants to solve this problem is stop taking whatever misguided loons like Lennart Poettering and the GNU community say about software development as if advice from God's lips. One of the top ten is to stop thinking of Linux as an OS.)

"The average user doesn't want to have to spend time figuring out why their mic or audio player doesn't work - they just want it to work out of the box. And those are the users the Linux community MUST be targeting. It's time to stop preaching to the choir and to the masses. But there's no way the masses will hear the sermon if their audio players aren't working."

It just brings a tear to my eye, Jack... It is like my words, coming out of your fingers. I'm sure you're going to take a beating for this post, but I've never agreed more with you. These are the little deal-breakers that send *average* people running to OS X and Windows.

QUOTE: It is like my words, coming out of your fingers.

. . . except that Jack is criticizing an objective, measurable problem, rather than just waving his hands.

I'm ALMOST suspicious someone is putting you up to following me from thread to thread to troll me, because I'm the paranoid sort.

does that mean you are still paranoid?
But yes, I've detected a bit of anger in Apotheon's posts today.
Tis ok, we all have bad days. However, I do agree with him on
the idea to stop calling "it" Linux!

What -- are you a psychologist now?

I'm not angry. I just dislike fatuous nonsense.

just a lowly pharmacist. Although I have had some training
in human behavior, I'm not licensed to administer pyschiatric
counseling.

Psychiatric help - 5c

The doctor is in!

Someone thinks I'm angry. How many times do I need to do a Hail Mary for that?

(Am I doing it wrong?)

but I'm switching your prescription to Bloody Marys, those Hail Marys aren't going to cut it

We could all learn to just get along...

My favorite in-flight beverage.

I've never actually had a Bloody Mary.

I much prefer Caesers myself, and I've been told by more than a few that my recipe is "gosh darned delish..." I'd be happy to have y'all over for a few, but I'll warn ya - I live on the far, far side of BFE... but if you fly, I'll buy!

I don't think I'm going to be downing any cocktails that contain clam broth.

made with habanero juice?
Maybe Bloody Mary of the Flaming Heart

I'd call that "a lot tastier than a Bloody Mary made with Tobasco or horseradish", considering habanero actually has a decent flavor.

I might also call it something like "Burning Mary", or "Mary on the Stake", or maybe a "Burning Mary Magdalene" just for fun.

edit: . . . or maybe Martyr Mary.

I get these newsletter things. I follow some of the interesting-looking headlines to find things like Jack Wallen articles. I check out the comments, and you're there, trying to pretend that the world is going to end if people keep using Linux. I guess the editors at TR must be manipulating me into "following" you.

But hey, that's just Linux distros being more like Windows, just to make crossover users comfortable.

Recently I have decided to make the change to linux. The recent Intellectual Property Rights (IPR going further) has pissed me off, to put it bluntly and simply. Soon Apple will be able to sue us for the process in which we use our bathrooms. While I know that statement is ridiculous, I believe Apple vs. Everyone to be just as ridiculous.

I have been sticking with MS for three reasons, Office (Now it's in the cloud so it's out of the equation), Gaming (I am almost done with gaming, the industry has just lost it's innovation. Everyone copies everyone else, but at least they aren't suing for IPR) and lastly Multimedia (Silverlight and Bluray access specifically, though now Flash is added to the mix.)

Up until yesterday, Flash wasn't a problem for me. I was able to watch the movies and shows I subscribed to on Amazon without issue. Now, through Chrome and Firefox both the last two episodes of Fringe aren't viewable. Yes I can use a VM with windows and to be sure, I have one set up, but is that really moving on from MS? Sadly, No.

One thing of which I'd like to make note, the very thing that weakens Linux distros in the home, strengthens it for corporate desktop use.

I cancelled all my Amazon subscriptions last night, and I'll cancel anything else that stops supporting linux abruptly as well. Not because I am worried about a place for Linux in my life, but because I am cutting the fat and cancer our of my economic life. I cut cable/satellite from my life, I can cut in other areas too.