Sound problem

Indeed it was Bill Mullen who said:

[You ain't seen nothin' like me "going on" about something.]

It was funny. But it would have been a lot /better/ had Dave wrapped it up
with something along the lines of "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take
it anymore! I'm buying a Mac!" Extremely valuable to "The Cause" would be a
high-profile or two jumping on the anti-M$ bandwagon. (Lord knows it ain't
gonna be - this just in, wasn't - the DoJ.) The story of The Beast and
alternatives to it must reach people who read /Parade/ and watch "The West
Wing"; the Slashdot and comp.os.linux crowd has been howling about it for
years. This crowd preaches tons to itself, but just how much of that noise
reaches the
mainstream?

Perhaps not "The West Wing" - an (MS)NBC show doing an anti-Big Software
Monopoly story? I don't think so. Maybe "The Daily Show."

Hmmm Forget siccing him on Barry, but I like the idea of Carl going
after the Beast. If only we could catch BillG tossing an AOL CD out his car
window, or M$ headquarters dumping some toxic waste

For that matter, I wouldn't mind seeing what King might come up with.
"WindowsPE - Possessed Edition." Naw. We already have that. And like a true
horror story demon, Microsoft just keeps growing and growing, consuming and
destroying more and more in its path. You will be assimilated. Resistance
is futile.

Unfortunately that's very true. But it's not much comfort for those of us
who hate Windows and /do/ care about our computers. We can wear our penguin
tee-shirts and put up "F*ck M$" websites until the cows come home, but we
still have to communicate with the outside world. And Microsoft is doing
its damndest to see that we are unable to do so. A 90% market share and
forty billion bucks is some tough competition for a loose group of negative
cash flow distros to go up against (ask Apple, which is far more together
than a loose group of negative cash flow distros), when 90% of the users
just don't care and 100% of the OEMs (from whom those users buy those
computers they don't care about) just go where the money is. Even if
Redmond's Gestapo tactics are taken away, at this point what good will this
new found freedom do the OEMs or their customers? The Gateway cows will
come home and continue to sell the all-MS PCs that the don't care customers
are just fine with: "Can I write a letter, crunch numbers, balance my
checkbook, send invoices, browse the Web, exchange email with aunt Bea and
open vacation pictures from the kids, all for under a grand and with never
having to see a terminal screen or mess with a config file? Here's my Visa
card."

"The majority of people would rather not think. Which makes it very
difficult and annoying for those of us who do."
--Fred Tourette

Boy this sure has nothing to do with a "sound problem" any more. Apologies
to anyone who's still reading the thread...

Then again, it /does/ have something to do with a sound problem; that
subject is what sucked me into this thread in the first place. I still
don't have any sound (nor a working Zip drive) under Mandrake Linux (we're
talking $70 box, CDs and manuals Mandrake, not Fred's) on a not-too-weird
Dell PC, while both - with, other than drivers which installed themselves,
absolutely NO tweaking or fondling - work fine under Windows, as much as it
pains me to admit it. How in hell can Linux ever expect to compete - or
draw in any of those customers who don't give a rat's ass about their
computers or Microsoft, just function, the bottom line and compatibility -
when there's an ordeal around every corner?

You and I, for whatever our reasons - deep loathing of Redmond, making a
statement, cheapness, the challenge, the thrill, the "open-source
community," masochism, or some combination thereof - are willing to put up
with this. But that average, yet vast majority user who doesn't care most
definitely will not. Hit them with the tiniest bit of inconvenience, and
they're gone. This is the crowd that continues to use Lookout Distress and
Internet Exploiter - often with ancient or no virus protection - despite
the constant string of security issues and available (and better)
alternatives. Steven says, "Dude, yer gettin' Windows" and they say "Fine."

I can choose to not drive an SUV and still get on the Interstate. I can
choose to not use Martha Stewart towels and still dry my ass. I can choose
to eat Mom & Pop's donuts instead of Krispy Kreme, I can choose to make my
own coffee and not drink Starbucks and, for the time being, I can buy my
tools and doors from Bob's Lumber & Hardware instead of Home Depot. But if
things continue as they are in the computer sector, I may be able to choose
to use Linux, but you and a small, gradually diminishing number of people
(percentage-wise) are the only ones I'll be able to share anything with.

I truly hope I'm wrong about this, that the current Linux wave will
actually have some legs, that at least one distro - but preferably several
- will actually go profitable and become something a regular human can
figure out and use, that numerous choices of truly usable and reliable
software will become available, but the odds are (and the current software
is) really bad. That very competitive, well-organized, cash rich 800-pound
gorilla with a huge already installed base was just given a pass, the
current state of Linux is fragmented, *not* ready for regular humans and,
as Linus says, people don't care anyway. Why don't they car about this
particular item? Forget government intervention and antitrust violations -
/people/ would never allow us to reach the point that General Motors was
the only corporation from which to buy a vehicle, or General Electric the
only company producing appliances. The choices in cars and refrigerators
and myriad other consumer goods are very personalized; when did the
"personal" escape the personal computer, beyond choosing between XP Home
with MS-Works and XP Pro with MS-Office, from whichever OEM or VAR had a
bundled software and free printer or monitor upgrade come-on in the right
place at the right time? Is ignorance and confusion on the customer's part
and a healthy dose of FUD from the Kings of FUD what allowed this to happen?

I will cheerfully eat any words I should mutter about Linux being destined
to never reach the desktop in any amount of meaningful numbers. I wish I
didn't care if it did or not. Heaven knows it would make my life a lot
easier, and me a lot easier to be around. But I do care. And that's why
things like Dave Barry's rant-but-roll-over-and-take-it-anyway piece set
/me/ ranting.

Cheers,

F.T.
--
Supporting alternative software now ensures that
we will be able to choose it in the future.
Just say No to Microsoft.