For you Linux programmers out there?

[Graham Todd]

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On Mon, 3 Sep 2007 22:34:03 -0700
D T <drden2000 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Now a simple Question to all the Linux programmers out there?  Why
> can't Kubuntu get the drivers from where it gets the applications.
> Just make a "Drivers" area?... Get all the drivers for all the
> Distro's?  Put them in one place.  So it would be 'add/remove
> Programs/DRIVERS' OS goes out to the web. Then you go to the
> 'DRIVERS' directory, then go to 'PRINTERS'.  Cant it be that way?
> What about an application that works with Fedora, Ubuntu, Suse and
> "whatever others" that are different to work INSTALLING to whatever
> Distro? Something that combines "alien with apt-get or adept"?
> Program it to make a .tz and .RPM (or whatever) to work with
> (whatever) Distro I have. 
[snipped]

I am not a Linux programmer/developer, but I am a Linux user
exclusively, so I'll try to answer some of your questions.  For a more
comprehensive account, I'm afraid you will have to read a book such as
"Rebel Code" by Glyn Moody, which is the story of the development of
Linux.

There is a system which will work with all distros: compiling the
source code from scratch.  However, package management tools to make
that basic facility easier for users have evolved (.rpm, .deb, etc).
Slackware still uses this basic system (with one or two improvements).
Printer drivers for all distros are housed in certain libraries which
you can download depending on the package management system your distro
uses, and install them.

The problem is that you can't download anything that isn't available
and often manufacturers will not work with the Linux community to
produce drivers for our operating system.  And there are patents in
place, or other licensing restrictions, which quite often prevent
developers from producing code.  So this prevents code being "lumped
together" because law suits against code developers are not unknown
(see the libdvdcss saga for an example).  In these cases it is the
manufacturers who are myopic: there's a whole community of users who
could be a new market for them if only they'd work with our community.

Since you have posted this on the Kubuntu users list, I presume you are
a Kubuntu user, and can download code for all version of the Ubuntu
family and it will work in your distro.  The Ubuntu family is a fork of
Debian, which works in the same basic way: you download a Linux kernel
and other basic system tools then you can download all the software you
want from the repositories.  The software will be packaged in a form
your distro can install automatically (similar to the Windows .exe
system).  Any distro using the Debian repositories (Knoppix, Shift
Linux, etc) will be able to download the software available.

In Debian at any rate, there are very clear rules about how software
gets assigned different "labels" within repositories and this is
another reason why software would not get lumped together.

You have asked that Linux looks and feels more like Windows, but they
are two operating systems which are fundamentally different in the way
they work.  The KDE desktop is about as Windows-like as you're likely
to get given the copyright, patent, and other licensing issues: put it
bluntly, Micro$oft won't allow it.  But there is no reason why we
should follow the Redmond giant.  The Ubuntu family produce CDs (or
CD .iso) that contain free software, that is free as in freedom, free
from licensing constraints (except the GPL and other Open Source
libraries) which can be used anywhere in the world.  If you have the
ability, you can rewrite an application or amend the source code and
offer it to others (providing the source code accompanies it).
Micro$oft doesn't work that way: they sell you a licence to USE their
software under certain circumstances (you don't own it), and there's no
chance of altering/improving their code because it is closed-source, so
you are totally in their hands.

As a newbie, you have come to Linux expecting it to be like Windows.
In the old days of computing, you chose the hardware to work with
whatever software you were using.  You can get secondhand printers very
cheaply these days, so why not Google to find which printers work with
Kubuntu "out of the box" and get one to work with the operating system
of your choice if that is the only problem you have.  When I was a
Linux newbie (about 10 years ago now), I was suffering the effects of a
stroke and I deliberately wanted to use an operating system with lots
of command-line use because I was trying to use and co-ordinate my hand
movements and not become totally paralysed.  I had to learn and there
was nobody around to show me, so I had to learn from the 'net and most
of the information came from nntp newsgroups and also irc channels.
After a while I was teaching Linux to other disabled people in my
Stroke Club.  One day, a local computer company donated some Windows
PCs: disabled people who had never used a computer before they used
Linux were totally floored by Windows.  The feedback I got was that it
was difficult and illogical to use, so could they please go back to Red
Hat Linux?  They couldn't understand why Windows couldn't be taken off
(the donating company had said they would maintain the machines for
free - as long as Windows was running on them), and Linux returned.
This is much the same as your position, but in reverse.

Modern variants of Windows are very good at what they do.  If it is
absolutely necessary to use one application that runs in Windows only,
use Windows.  Kubuntu and other Linux variants are good at what they
(can) do, so if you like them, move to Linux - or get multiple
computers - or dual boot in some way.

HTH

- -- 

Graham Todd
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