I used to be hardcore…
I ran Slackware when it was on 400 floppies. I ran the 1.x kernel. I hacked channels on efnet in IRC for bragging rights. I waited all day long for wavs to download from a BBS. My game of choice used to be a MUD.
We grow up, we move on, and we get accustomed to a new standard.
It’s like that isn’t it? As time goes on, the standard is raised higher and we grow accustomed to a base level. Much like the 2.4 kernel was for Linux…it really moved things forward from previous kernels. It’s like the high jump in track and field…jumping 5’8″ isn’t that big of deal…but once you hit 5’10” and above, you’re sailing.
Linux has had a new standard go into effect in the past few years…mostly since 2007 and the 2.6.18 and above kernels. We’ve come to expect more from our operating system and for good reason. I for one, am glad that the standard is raised a notch with each iteration…it gives us something to aspire to. It gives us measured steps from which to guage ourselves by. Hopefully, with each step forward, improvement comes without regression.
Lately, I’ve become concerned about regression. I’ve noticed quite a few major distributions are not able to boot a standard Dell Latitude laptop…some taking as long as 20 minutes to boot (yes, 20 minutes…I’m looking at you Fedora 10). I can’t help but wonder, are we taking steps backwards? Is this the portion of time where we take one step backward followed by 2 steps forward? Or is this the time where the kernel becomes TOO big? I hope it’s the former. And I hope that my concern is misplaced.
Thinking of all these things and what I’ve become accustomed to…I don’t feel hardcore anymore. And then I go and hack a python script to update twitter because I can and all is right again…I might as well be riding a Harley.
Just a few thoughts on this sleepless night…
"This entry was posted -1 years, 12 months ago on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009" Interesting post. and very interesting time 🙂
I agree….something is up with my plugin and I'll be forced to find out…only in the morning as it is pretty late/early.
Devnet is on to something here. I’m not “linux veteran” as I’ve only been using the OS as my main machine for two years now. One thing I can difference that I can see even in that short time span is the “bloat” mostly in the eye-candy distros favored by n00bs. So we as a l33t haxzor group are torn by two problems – getting new adopters from M$ takes eye-candy and bloat but the whole reason for switching or staying with such an advanced OS is the ability to run in it under a strict control of resources. Then you get to literally have a machine doing just what you want, when you want it and the results are nothing short of stunning. But, getting back to the problem – Ubuntu, Fedora, et. al are doing just that – building a great looking desktop distro that requires a lot of resources and runs slightly well when you can have a very slick desktop that runs like a “bat out of hell” but may have a little learning curve to use it.
Devnet. How do you find Ubuntu on your Dell laptop? I’ve been running it for about 3 versions on my Dell D630 and it runs like a dream. Never had any performance issues and starts up really fast. As far as I understand Jaunty, that’s due on Thursday, aims for a faster start-up too.
Unfortunately, Ubuntu resulted in kernel panics and wasn’t a good fit for me. However, Linux Mint seems to do quite nicely on that laptop so I’ve been running that.
Interesting how it can differ on the same kind of laptop isn’t it. Glad you’re sticking with the tux! 🙂
Its a lot harder to be hardcore there days, a lot more programmers about to compete with, a lot more to know, about a lot more programs and languages. Long gone a the days when you could know every inch of your computer or your OS (that was probably end after the 8-bit days).
You talk about long boot-ups. I think booting should be almost instantaneous. We have 32GB memory sticks (flash drives). Build one into the PC! Manufacturers must be doing it now.
just want to “calibrate” the comments… among many tweaks, i turn off the iCandy in winXp. some of xp and vista(**) ui features are very useful.
i’ve noticed an apparent split amongst linux/distro/desktop enthusiasts. the “noisy” enthusiasts seem to love eye candy. the “old coots” love cli. 🙂
i’m interested in the practical “inbetween”: a highly functional, configgable gui.
** annoyingly, vista dropped some of xp’s better functionality (grrrr)