The Linux Wall Part 2: A Flip-Flop

Earlier, I said one thing that made me happy about Linux is that things just work. I feel a need to qualify this: The things that work work perfectly. The things that don't work exist on a spectrum somewhere between not working at all and trashing your OS.

I know there are ways to work around these issues. As I said earlier, Linux seems to be designed around the idea of getting things to work rather than making them not work. You can change anything you need to change, even rewriting the programs or the OS or both if you need to. By contrast, getting Windows APIs is like stealing secrets from the Kremlin -- even multimillion dollar corporations under contract to Microsoft can't pay to get the level of cooperation your average Joe with a Linux box can get by just asking.

On the other side, simple things like syncing your MP3 player, getting your computer to boot up in under 15 minutes (!), or reinstalling a program/driver that is having problems take on a nightmarish, Kafka-esque proportion that will put off the new user as a default setting.

And this is coming from a guy who does not flinch at dropping to a command line, editing the registry, changing BIOS settings, or even taking the computer apart and playing with jumpers to get something to work.

Listen: One of the most complex games on earth is chess. It took millions of dollars and decades to research to build Deep Blue, which was almost good enough to beat someone who had put in the energy to become a master of the game.

But the saying goes: "a minute to learn, a lifetime to master."

This would be a good paradigm for Linux to look into.