According to Littlefield, Tyler: # I just thought I'd reply to the windows bashing since it's done by a guy # I've seen make totally ludacris hardware suggestions and shove arch at # people that probably shouldn't use it. You obviously have me confused with someone else. In the real world where I live, I built the computer I'm using to write this message, and it serves my needs quite well. In the same real world,, the totally ludacris hardware suggestions I have made, as you so elloquently put it, have resulted in satisfied customers and no complaints. Furthermore, in the real world where I live, I have only installed Arch Linux once, and that was a portable install on a flash drive, because although I wanted my client to start out with openSUSE, it wouldn't allow me to install to the flash drive in a fullly portable way, insisting that I install GRUB to the hard disk on my own computer, and giving me no easy to find option to change it. So I put Arch on that flash drive and did all the necessary installation procedures to get GNOME 3.6 running on it, along with Packagekit to keep it updated and install additional applications in a more simplified way. The point was to have a flash drive that would run on any computer that can boot from USB, with the user's own files, bookmarks, applications that are always in the same place, and a full operating system that doesn't touch anything, even temporary files or cookies, on the computer on which it runs. Currently Linux is by far the best operating system to fill this need, and though Arch was certainly not my first choice for someone new to Linux, it ended up being the best for the job, as the client is unable to purchase a computer, and I needed to provide much needed basic training involving the internet, e-mail and other applications related to finding and acquiring jobs, at as low a cost as possible to me, and at absolutely no cost to the client. So what in the world did I do wrong here? Where have I forced you or anyone else to use Arch Linux against your will? What hardware suggestions have I made that you didn't like? What crime did I commit against you that made you feel the need to personally attack me and the way I do business, seeing as how you don't know me, and I know you in name only, and only from this list? Perhaps I have every right to personally attack you for the statement you make below, but I will use my better judgment in this matter, although I do have a response. # On another note, while I love Linux as a server and I use it all # the time on my desktop, I'm not really sure that it should be used for # end-users who just want a desktop. I guess it does offer him job # security, though. Actually, I had plenty of job security, had I wanted it, just removing viruses, spyware and all other kinds of malicious and otherwise nasty software from people's Windows computers, but over the years, Linux has become less and less of an operating system just for geeks, and has become quite a viable operating system for anyone. Major commercial developers, including Valve, the company behind the Steam gaming platform, are finally coming onboard, making more commercial applications available for Linux operating systems. So this is not just a generalization based on personal preference, as you suggested in another post. So I made a decision to only support freedom operating systems and software, such as Linux and its quite full and capable list of available applications. My job is to give people the freedom to use their computers, the freedom to share the applications they use, and if they really want to get more deeply involved, the freedom to study and adapt the underlying code to their own needs. And yes, this does give me job security, not from all the extra technical support that you imply is needed just to make Linux work, but because there will always be people who want the alternative to the proprietary software that is put onto the computers they purchase, whether they want it or not, especially when I am able to offer a full suite of applications that are not time limited trials, at a lower price than the major manufacturers, at least when it comes to mid to high-end computers. ~Kyle http://kyle.tk/ -- "Kyle? ... She calls her cake, Kyle?" Out of This World, season 2 episode 21 - "The Amazing Evie"
