Is Linus Torvalds Speaking for Linux Anymore? 417
An anonymous reader writes to tell us CNET is currently running a story asking 'Is Linus Torvalds even speaking for Linux anymore?' It examines both Torvalds' recent public statements on other operating systems and his current approach towards Linux. The author wonders if his utopian view of how an operating system should be viewed and used is just too alien from what the majority of users are really looking for. "if it were up to Torvalds, beauty and intuition would take a backseat to functionality. But when you look at distributions like Ubuntu or OpenSuse, it looks like no one is paying attention. 'An OS should never have been something that people (in general) really care about: it should be completely invisible and nobody should give a flying [expletive] about it except the technical people.' Sure, that statement makes some sense, but in the grand scheme of things, it's the design and usability factor that makes the operating system much easier to use. And while both Mac OS X and Windows have their issues, for the average person, it makes more sense to use those than Linux."
Hey Don Reisinger (Score:4, Informative)
quote out of context (Score:1, Informative)
2 words (Score:3, Informative)
Misinformed and misinterpreted (Score:5, Informative)
Infrastructure (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Operating System != GUI (Score:3, Informative)
Re:set in stone (Score:2, Informative)
Re:What is the Operating System? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:People don't choose an OS for an OS. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:People don't choose an OS for an OS. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Semantics Nazi alert (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Semantics Nazi alert (Score:1, Informative)
Re:FUD alert (Score:2, Informative)
Just because Windows (and used to be Mac as well) ties the GUI to the kernel with more ropes than a Bondage House doesn't mean that the two are not separate.
I maintain my view that the Operating System is invisible to the truly average user, excepting extreme cases such as crashing and troubleshooting. When is the last time the average user surfed around in the SYSTEM registry hive of Windows?