 | |
|
Technology news and Jobs 
The Linux distillery Linux on the line: musings on the CLI / GUI flip-flop
The Linux distillery Linux on the line: musings on the CLI / GUI flip-flop | Linux on the line: musings on the CLI / GUI flip-flop |
|
|
| by David M Williams | |
| Wednesday, 21 November 2007 | |
|
Page 2 of 3 Initially, Linux was no threat to Microsoft. And the pundits had been predicting the death of UNIX for decades. Yet, just like the Redmond giant realised they missed the value of the Internet early on, so too they saw the emerging threat of Linux.The marketing types patted themselves on the back but then gasped as it dawned upon them Linux was a stellar server operating system. It ran headless without a blink. It handled multi-user sessions. Indeed, it had a rich UNIX heritage of being the platform the Internet ran on. Thus the TCO – total cost of ownership – argument was given life to counter this. “Sure,” the prophets of FUD would say, “Linux may save you $150 over Windows NT/2000, but you will find a gazillion Windows administrators to every one Linux administrator. And all they do is eat pizza all day anyway. And they don’t pick up the crumbs.” The arguments began flying. Linux would cost more money in the long run, because staff required more training. There were fewer people with the appropriate technical talent. It was easier to find emergency Windows-centric staff than Linux people. The overall message was Linux was a risk, because Linux was more complex. It didn’t primarily use a GUI. People couldn’t just click “Next” all the way through an installation. (And I have to say, two of my biggest peeves in the Windows world stem from the “Next”/”Next”/”Next” method of program installation. I just can’t stand Windows operating systems with the wrong regional settings. And I just hate Microsoft Office installations where you have to keep supplying the disc because all the “install on first use” settings were left untouched.) I taught Linux operating system fundamentals including creating user accounts by understanding the /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group files. Yet, a remarkable transformation happened. UNIX did have a GUI; MIT’s X-Windows platform had long been around with countless window managers. Yet, it was just eye-candy. Everyone still used xterms to do the real stuff; even reading mail through elm (or pine if you were a newb.) The original Linux ran great in 2Mb RAM but if you wanted the optional X11 component then 4Mb, even 8Mb, may be needed – so it was usually ignored on low-spec hardware. But then computers became more powerful – the bloatedness of Windows saw more powerful PC hardware at a lower price. Linux users didn’t have to pay any attention to how much memory their machines had. The punchy pair of GNOME and KDE appeared on the scene and rose to prominence. I started to receive criticism; “Why are you talking about /etc/passwd when all you need is this widget” the spotty-faced sprog from the Windows ’95 generation would ask. Before my eyes, I almost became a dinosaur myself –entire suites of simple to use wizards, tools, applets, gadgets and widgets became mainstream fare. |
| < Next story in category | Previous story in the category > |
|---|
