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    Quality of Linux information

    The only decent source of information in the Linux world seems to be the Arch Linux wiki.

    I don't even like Arch at this point or I know not much about it but their information is always decent and helpful and to the point and what you'd expect it to be. Or what you'd write yourself, or what I'd write myself.

    Kubuntu doesn't really have a wiki with anything. Only some elementary information about the system, but not very concise and more aimed at drawing in more people (a sales pitch). Not really qualitative information.

    Back in the day I was writing on the OpenSUSE wiki and it was better than what we have today. Maybe I should return to OpenSUSE, if it's still around. I wanted to write for Kubuntu but there was no need for Dutch translators and I couldn't get a hang of /where/ I could write. There was nothing to latch onto and no one to ask questions.

    I ended up in the translators group but that's how far I got. Before you say that I should have tried harder, that's no way to take in more contributors (the user is always wrong).

    So I ended up in the translators group but I didn't know where to start or what to do. All strings in software was already translated and I wanted to write the wiki, but there was very little information on it. I don't know where to start in such circumstances. After all, I'm unwelcome here even, let alone as a quality contributor.

    Most information seems to go to the StackExchange network these days. I detest it because the culture is really rotten. People write only to accrue points and people flame you to get more points. There is always something wrong with the question you ask and Markdown is a horror (whoever invented THAT?). It's not ingenuous, there's no sincerity there. A bit like here ;-).

    It's like StackExchange steals the information and turns it into their asset instead of it belonging to the person who wrote it and the platform they belong to. There's no belonging in StackExchange. It's Borg. You are being assimilated.

    So I detest that information and it is often low quality information because the questions are disingenuous and so are the answers, people don't put in love only effort (to earn something) but they've usurped the Google page ranking and the only place I like to go where it's nice is the PHP documentation where people actually make quality contributions (since they're doing it for the heck of it, not to earn something) when I'm programming.

    And Kubuntu is the only beacon of hope and now it's dying (or people profess or pretend it's dying). The fastest way to bring about ill-fortune is to think it is coming. What you think you create. There are several people here who undermine Kubuntu's chances of survival, and more along the way. Debian is a Server OS, not a desktop OS. You can't think to create the community you want when all of you say "Oh Debian KDE is gonna be it, there's hardly any difference". Yeah, right. Debian is where you roll up your sleeves, that's what's attractive about it. It's something you can grasp, although they are losing that solid ground with the systemd inclusion for a large part. They've thrown in the towel. Not even Debian can withstand that. Ugliness ensues. Systemd is like NetworkManager, it's full of bugs and fails in very ungraceful ways. You can have NetworkManager fail to connect to wifi and you need to reboot your computer to get it working again (or whatever way you have to reboot it). It completely disrupts your /etc/network/interfaces configuration, it has its own dispatcher (if-up.d) directory, its scripts are not compatible with ifup scripts, it still runs all if-up.d scripts (etcetera) and I don't know what else is wrong with it, but much. Systemd introduces failcases that never existed before, completely owns the services startup, communication and logging and recovery, and is like a monopolist that wants its hand in everything. In Dutch we say "vinger in de pap hebben" -- to want or to have an influence, to meddle and interfere with stuff, to want to have a say. Systemd uses a binary logging format and only its tools can read it. It's the monopolist that bribes its way in and leaves everyone destitute when it turns out no one can live without it again. It is like Monsanto, systemd is a Monsanto. There is an excellent documentary that describes this phenomenon, "We feed the world" (Pioneer's slogan).

    Back in the day in Rumania Pioneer came in and offered hybrid seeds that could not be used for next generations, meaning they die, don't give new produce when replanted and harvested from the old crop. The farmers had always been dependent on their own produce for their new seeds, collecting it and drying it from the old generation, so as to have new seed the next year.

    What does the Rumanian government do? Give subsidy to the farmers for buying Pioneer seed under bribe from Pioneer. So farmers are enticed to leave behind their age-old self-sustaining practice of seed regeneration in order to buy self-dying hybrid seed that produces lower quality (but more shiny) crop and that keeps them eternally dependant on the seed producer for buying new seed every year.

    Guess what they do next year. They abandon the subsidy and leave the farmers in a worse position than they were before. Now they can buy Pioneer's seed at a premium cost and can no longer go back to where they were before (since they no longer have the seed they used to have). Death trap.

    Monsanto does the same thing of course. And systemd is more of the same, as is NetworkManager.

    BTRFS is also one of these systems albeit a bit different. BTRFS just usurps layers, is completely unattractive to a novice user or a not-diehard-fan, and attracts developer time because most developers are die-hard fans and out goes the customer friendliness of the system. (No sane regular computer user should ever want to dabble with BTRFS) (that's just my opinion).

    A lot of the stuff that matters in the computer world is presentation, and presentation is laughed at and scoffed at in the Linux world, causing it to fail miserably with consumers. This failure is completely understandable and predictable, yet when you mention it you get hate and vitriol directed at you. Blizzard made millions of dollars with World of Warcraft because they understand presentation and attracted a large number of female players (more than any other game) but commercial success is something that just gets blank stares in the Linux world. Commercial success? What's that? Can you explain what it is? We don't understand. Money? People willing to offer money for something? What's that? You mean people actually want to have something so badly that they'd give MONEY? What's that, wanting something badly? Having??

    What makes something attractive is beyond most people in the Linux world. Attractiveness is something you can study and create and what most people in the Linux world create is hideous.

    Not because they're bad programmers. Because they're not interested in creating attractive stuff. They don't understand teenagers. They don't understand girls. They don't understand looks, usefulness. They don't understand much of anything that is relevant for making attractive stuff. Not because they can't. Because they scoff at what's needed for it. They think it's unnecessary, unneeded, superfluous, a waste of time. As a consequence, a lot of time is being wasted in the Linux world. Because attractiveness is also user friendliness, and people scoff at what makes something user friendly. The user is always wrong. But the user is the only one who knows what works and what doesn't, and by calling him wrong (or her, more appropriately), you close yourself off from that knowledge.

    So now you don't know what works and what makes your software better. Because you don't want to hear it. You consider it a waste of time. To listen to "softy" concerns. Those people are all too sensitive you say. It is a blindness, a self-chosen blindness.

    #2
    Originally posted by xennex81 View Post
    Not because they're bad programmers. Because they're not interested in creating attractive stuff... They don't understand looks, usefulness. They don't understand much of anything that is relevant for making attractive stuff. Not because they can't. Because they scoff at what's needed for it. They think it's unnecessary, unneeded, superfluous, a waste of time.
    Generalize much?

    You've just swept away hundreds of thousands of hours of work by thousands of people. Nice job.

    Originally posted by xennex81 View Post
    They don't understand teenagers. They don't understand girls.
    Neither do elderly gay men. But that doesn't preclude the possibility of their writing decent software. Whatever point you're trying to make is lost amid your raucous sound and fury.

    Comment


      #3
      Why do I even bother to jump in like this. I mainly do it when I first wake up, around 4-5 am, sipping green tea, before the demands of the day's Must-To-Do's kick in to distract me.

      Arch does have good stuff, in nicely written form (though largely unedited, so it seems, for English).
      Observe that OpenSUSE seems to be attracting much interest lately. Along with RedHat and Fedora, an OS for adults.
      Agree about StackExchange network. The good stuff there is very good. That said, the silliness, the competitiveness, the point-making is so damn thick there, it distracts you.
      "Debian is a Server OS, not a desktop OS. You can't think to create the community you want when all of you say 'Oh Debian KDE is gonna be it, there's hardly any difference'. Yeah, right. Debian is where you roll up your sleeves, ..." No expert here, but I seem to agree (can someone convince me otherwise?), for a long time that has been my impression of Debian, reading around the Internet, this stereotype of Debian is no secret.
      BTRFS--Glad I'm not alone in feeling that way about it. Haven't tried it, haven't analyzed it to the nth degree, just reading the posts of others, just feel the same way about it, but maybe I missed something or am not tuned in to what 'we' are looking for.

      "Generalize much? Whatever point you're trying to make is lost amid your raucous sound and fury." And about that, I agree! But then, we know this, don't we? :-)

      How's that for some compact, non-information?
      Last edited by Qqmike; Jul 06, 2015, 05:53 AM.
      An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski

      Comment


        #4
        Another day flew by. Not much action on the forums today, yet. Where are we here? Do you have any positive action plan? What comes of this exuberant philosophy--something Kubuntu seems to have an abundance of lately.

        The only decent source of information in the Linux world seems to be the Arch Linux wiki.
        I don't even like Arch at this point or I know not much about it but their information is always decent and helpful and to the point and what you'd expect it to be. Or what you'd write yourself, or what I'd write myself.
        You may write. I didn't see any signs posted around here saying you couldn't. You indicated an interest to write. Especially so if you have in mind a subject that users/members would like to see handled in more (Arch-wiki style) technical detail. I think you'd find some of our How-To's geared that way.

        Awhile ago, in a post here, "valorie" (I got the impression she is a Kubuntu dev?) invited you to jump in, suggesting two or three areas where help is needed.

        What's the Action Plan ?!
        An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski

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