Manufacturers need more than just a pretty face

Story: Linux desktops need more than just a pretty faceTotal Replies: 0
Author Content
grouch

Mar 26, 2006
1:21 PM EDT
From the article:

>"The problem is of course nothing to do with the developers of the various Linux distributions. Canon, for reasons of its own, just doesn’t make anything but Windows drivers for this particular printer."

Stan Beer should have noted this in the title, instead of blaming Linux for the problem created by the manufacturer of his printer.

Conclusion of the article:

>"Installing new downloaded software is one of the most common tasks performed by desktop users at home and in small offices. Until the Linux suppliers can make this task trivial, they will continue to miss out on a whole world of users beyond the command line geeks."

The author draws a broad, insupportable conclusion that is contrary to existing facts. The author blames "Linux suppliers" for failures of printer manufacturers. The author has apparently failed to notice that many millions "of users beyond the command line geeks" currently enjoy using GNU/Linux.

Installing software on the distribution the author chose, Ubuntu, is trivial when using the distribution's package management tools. The author, an admitted newcomer to Linux, complains about problems encountered while stepping outside Ubuntu's package management, into purely experimental software he discovered offered freely on the Internet, in an attempt to correct a defect created by the printer manufacturer.

In short, the author blames the very people who generously and freely tried to assist him while holding the printer manufacturer, who created his problem, blameless.

Mr. Beer's gratitude to the developers for offering him their attempt at a solution, to a problem they didn't create, is less than inspiring.

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