Linux Satisfaction, Beginners' Guide, and Download Managers
Today Recently in Linux news, Jack Wallen asks, "Will Linux ever be able to give consumers what they want?" Mark Gibbs relates his experience installing Ubuntu on an older netbook. Linux.com has a complete beginner's guide to Linux and Rob Zwetsloot looks at four popular download managers. And finally, Reiser4 has made a comeback and systemd is wreaking havoc again for some.
"Jack Wallen offers up the novel idea that giving the consumers what they want might well be the key to boundless success." Wallen says in most industries if you don't give the customer what they want they'll go away. He thinks Linux should be the same. Of course, this would be easier if everybody just wanted what he does. Unfortunately, Wallen has to contend with developers' needs and wants as well as all those other pesky Linux users wanting Linux just the way they want it. He makes legitimate points about some developers and the wild direction they take us Linux riders sometimes, but what the smartphone and cloud crowd want is not necessarily what will send Linux through the roof. Sure there are plenty of Chromebook fans, but that's not everybody. Does he want all distributions to be half proprietary and geared towards the folks who think Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube are the Internet?
In what (OMG! - it's him again) Jack Wallen calls "The Complete Beginner's Guide to Linux," new users can get an overview of what the world of Linux encompasses. While he mentions other distributions, his complete guide shows how to install Ubuntu and install software on Ubuntu. Thank goodness this really isn't the complete Linux repertoire and, perhaps, explains why his other article rubbed against my grain too.
Rob Zwetsloot has four downloaders that can "improve and better manage your web downloads for mirroring, mass grabs or just better control over your files." These include uGet, KGet, and two others you just might want to try. But he has his favorite and I'm not going to provide spoilers.
In other news:
* Installing Ubuntu on an old netbook with hair tearing and profanity
* On LKML: an open letter to the Linux World (about systemd)
* Pisi Linux 1.0 now available
* Aaron Seigo: what is "the desktop"?
* Debian Project News - August 14th, 2014
* Reiser4 Now Available for the 3.15 kernel, so what?
* My apologies for the late posting - something I ate didn't agree with me last night.