That article is ancient. Threads on Linux aren't performing any worse than on Windows. Windows performance is worse in general, because MS doesn't care to invest effort into optimizing the lower components (there was a recent article from one of the MS developers about internal culture of stagnation there).

There are certainly a lot of differing opinions offered in this topic regarding solutions to software management. I believe it might be worth mentioning that as long as people have different opinions (and I am thankful that people do have different opinions), then there will always be a vast variety of different solutions.

Personally, I do not care for how windows does things. I also do not care for how Ubuntu does things. So I have found a distro that I personally am very happy with, and will not change as long as the distro I use stick to the current philosophy. Should it ever happen that the free OS I use were to change into something I dislike, then I shall simply find another distro that is more to my liking. I am just happy that people make all these different distros and release them completely for free to anyone interested in using them.

Many software developers for Linux simply release source code, and it is all up to the user (or in most cases, the distro maintainers) to compile the source code into a binary package to be handled by the package manager. Now I don't intend to get deep into this discussion, I just wanted to offer my opinion.

I quite like that everything is handled by the package manager of my distro. Even software obtained directly from source myself, is handled by the build system of my distro so the package manager can do the actual installation. I like knowing that all software is handled this way, it makes it extremely easy for me to uninstall something in a clean manner. Packages from the official repositories can all be updated with a single command, which I happen to find very easy and convenient.

Also, the bug report that shaddim links to is not a bug, but a differing on opinions. The distro maintainers decides what approach to take to handling software. And frankly I believe I see too much of a "customer" attitude among some of the comments in that bug report.

Couldn't agree more.
Only difference is I'm using Slackware. ;P

That is my point, use what you like and enjoy, and what suits your needs. Actually I was thinking to install Slackware on another laptop which I don't intend to use as often, and Slack is ideally suited for that. Using Arch on a computer that is infrequently used is generally a very bad idea.

While I agree this has to do with "points of view", I think the currently overly distro centric & developer centric focus prevalent in the current linux world is what kills the linux desktop. We need more "customer" attitude and less elitistic "I don't care how Apple and MS innovated the desktop" attitude if we want that the "year of the linux deskop" finally arrive.

Currently, the linux desktop works only acceptable for developers, admins and geeks. It works not for commercial software developers, game and multimedia producers, ISVs, non-techy users ("customers"), and yes, publishers like GOG. Some of the elitisitic stuff needs to be thrown overboard, the platform needs to be streamlined and unified. Maybe the first thing required to be thrown overboard (had hardest to achieve) ls the geek proud. Then a pragmatic and simple approach should be followed, maybe just like MacOS, which was built as modern desktop OS on top of a unixoid foundation, should be copied 1:1 (- closed platform aspects).

If the community is not able to do it themself, well... a commercial company might do it... and we see with Android how this could end in unfavourable results.

Nothing "kills" the Linux desktop. It's not 90's anymore. It works perfectly for commercial software developers and works for common users as well. It's growing in adoption, and projects like KDE push a lot for that. What hinders Linux desktop is the ancient problem of the Microsoft's network effect , the infamous Windows tax and of course some lack of applications like games. That's where Valve comes from the side and kicks MS hard.

1%-3% adoption rate is sad reality. MS is here not the problem anymore like in the 90s. This notation that it is "MS vs the free software community" was maybe true in the 90s. Now it is the elitistic software community who itself hinders the success of the free and open source desktop, by pretending "everything fine! what works for me has to work for everyone". And Steam will be not the white knight who will save the distro ecosystem in the form it currently exists, get ready for a Android like result.

This are my thoughts too. Linux and other free open source projects are mostly driven by a community of volunteers and some companies. Maybe the combined capabilities of all open source developers isn't big enough to create a good enough product. Maybe customer orientation is just not that easy to achieve.

But then it's an open race. Everybody can get in and out at any time. If a company achieves where a community fails, so be it.

No companies behind the Debian project, and even like this, lots of other distros use their works…like Ubuntu, with Canonical…owned by a billionaire.

So it have nothing to deal with it. But the more peoples help and contribute to these distros, the more they'll become good enough for everyone. And sometimes it just don't need a lot : talk about it, help peoples interested in and who're needing help, and it's often enough.

The problem is: While there are many motivated and great developers in the linux developer community, they are driven by personal motivation only. They fix problems they have personally or extend features they care for, not the one the ecosystem needs. On the other hand, someone is missing focussing all this independent efforts and creating a unified platform. As this is not existing the friction, forking and duplication in the development is very very big. And I personally believe that the distro ecosystem structure is more part of the problem than part of a solution.

PS: For instance, as you mentioned debian, these conservative unix elitists and self pro-claimed linux ecosystem architects are in struggle with everyone else (, [url=http://benjamin.smedbergs.us/blog/2006-02-22/debian-versioning-of-mozilla-libraries-harmful/]Mozilla, Ubuntu...) and responsible for the end and downfall of many good initatives. I'm still annoyed with them for their infamous role in the downfall of the autopackage project ...*argH*! ([url=http://web.archive.org/web/20060715232754/http://plan99.net/~mike/blog/?p=30]"Autopackage: Some distribution people, notably Debian developers, outright hate us or insult us. This is part of a wider theme of upstream/downstream tension. Debian is by far the worst here and deserves to be singled out - their packagers routinely anger high profile developers, and the practice of subtly breaking software continues unabated." [/url]) A major chance for the linux desktop missed ! :(

Hot damn, those games I want on the Humble Store are free of DRM, available on Steam as well, plus they are now at least 50% off. I am so tempted! GOG, if you want to keep me as a customer, announce something relevant...now!

Ugh! Why did you have to post that? I didn't even realize Dust had a Linux version, and there it was for less than the 50% off I bought it for. Another rebuy. Should know better than to buy without checking by now.

Never heard of Dust. Thanks for pointing it out. $3.75 for a DRM free Linux version? Great deal. Microsoft Studios allows DRM free release and let a lone on Linux? That's news.

Also, don't miss a bunch of DRM free Linux games on the new Humble Bundle sale.

Linux and Mac OS version are new and available since yesterday only ;)
At the moment, DRM-free for Linux and Mac OS and steam-only for Windows. Linux and Mac OS steam version are coming, as for Windows DRM-free version;

A very good news and I bought it too, very good game.

Is that a Castlevania type game I spy? The trailer looks good, and you folks here seem hyped. I guess that is one more Linux game I can buy from the Humble Store!