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Re: If you could design a $300 homecomputer today, what would you choose?
- Subject: Re: If you could design a $300 homecomputer today, what would you choose?
- From: David Cantrell <usenet-20010705@barnyard.co.uk>
- Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 19:17:34 +0100
- Newsgroups: alt.amiga, comp.sys.amiga.advocacy, comp.sys.amstrad.8bit, comp.sys.apple2, comp.sys.atari.8bit, comp.sys.atari.advocacy, comp.sys.atari.st, comp.sys.cbm, comp.sys.sinclair
- Organization: This space intentionally left blank
- References: <9ikva3$ple$1@nereid.worldonline.nl> <dcpskt8o93grt93kd0qpr9q3mt95oacsqk@4ax.com> <9im5nt$1dk4$1@rivage.news.be.easynet.net>
- Xref: archiver1.google.com alt.amiga:1481 comp.sys.amiga.advocacy:21713 comp.sys.amstrad.8bit:3588 comp.sys.apple2:10566 comp.sys.atari.8bit:6784 comp.sys.atari.advocacy:546 comp.sys.atari.st:13915 comp.sys.cbm:18130 comp.sys.sinclair:44722
On Fri, 13 Jul 2001 08:50:18 +0200, "LordDaha" <look@signature.com>
said:
>"Bob Retelle" <bobr1@provide.net> wrote in message
>dcpskt8o93grt93kd0qpr9q3mt95oacsqk@4ax.com">news:dcpskt8o93grt93kd0qpr9q3mt95oacsqk@4ax.com...
>>
>> >As OS? (Linux is a dead giveaway, but there also other OS's out there)
>>
>> Gak. You said "userfriendly" up there. Linux is out. Waayyyy out.
>
>Weird. I think you should check out a recent Linux distribution.
I've been using and sysadminning Linux for the past few years, and
none of the distributions I've tried have been sufficiently
idiot-proof to put in a consumer device*. However, that doesn't mean
that one couldn't be created.
Now that I've been using it for a couple of weeks, this 'ere Debian
box behaves perfectly. I can and do use it as an appliance sometimes,
and at other times - well, there's all the other goodies there so I
can hack away.
I turn it on, and, after a minute or so, I'm at a graphical login. I
log in and I have a desktop, with common applications already on the
desktop and less-common applications in a small drop-down menu. The
Gnome panel across the top has a clock, a battery meter, and a
shutdown button, (and cos I'm somewhat more of a 'power user' than
what we're targetting, it has virtual desktops, task lists, etc as
well). It all 'just works'. And because the important config files
are protected, dumb users can't just break it. I have to explicitly
make myself root to break it.
* - nor is Windows. How many consumer devices do you have to go
through umpteen arcane menus and options to do something trivial? Not
even my VCR is as badly designed as Windows.
--
David Cantrell | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david