Very Computer

What might skew the figures could be the way the sample was taken.  If,
for example, the questionnaire was given to people who came to some sort
of Linux stand, then it could potentially be a most un-representative
sample.  If the figure is 45% of "people who expressed a general interest
in Linux", then it is probably pretty meaningless.  If OTOH it was
a genuinely random sample of those attending, and they were presented
with the survey under no specific OS heading (I.e. it wasn't portrayed
as "A survey of Linux usage", but merely as a general gathering of
information) then the 45% figure could be deeply significant.

John

(Newsgroups heavily trimmed.  Follow-ups trimmed even more.)
--
John Winters.  Wallingford, Oxon, England.

comp.lang.c:

=>OTOH, you have no reason to believe that the respondents were answering
=>at random.  That hypothesis is less likely than the more obvious one.
=>It would be very difficult to hit upon a random cross section of the
=>delegates who behaved like that.

=>What might skew the figures could be the way the sample was taken.  If,
=>for example, the questionnaire was given to people who came to some sort
=>of Linux stand, then it could potentially be a most un-representative
=>sample.  If the figure is 45% of "people who expressed a general interest

It's an un-representative sample because it was taken at COMDEX. While some
non-'computer geeks' attend, they number only a small fraction of the total.
Taking a survey at ANY trade show is significant only within that trade. The
original issue was 'Joe Sixpack' - specifically, the very people who DON'T go
to COMDEX.

When someone comes up with a 'insert CD, click Install' method of installing
linux, it may become a 'masses' OS. Until then, we're stuck with MS.
For business - Unix over linux because legal wants someone thay can sue.

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Amaze Your Friends! Confound Your Neighbors! Stupefy Your Enemies!

THINK!

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Quote:> When someone comes up with a 'insert CD, click Install' method of installing
> linux, it may become a 'masses' OS. Until then, we're stuck with MS.

Quote:> For business - Unix over linux because legal wants someone thay can sue.

Paul.

Quote:>> When someone comes up with a 'insert CD, click Install' method of installing
>> linux, it may become a 'masses' OS. Until then, we're stuck with MS.
>I agree with this, Linux needs to be easier.

Linux doesn't *need* to be anything, apart from enough much fun for
the developers to keep hacking on it.

Linux didn't get to where it is by being easy, for newbies or anybody
else. it didn't become what it is by doing anything that wasn't
already done by some other OS, or indeed anything in particular at
all. we got to where we are because a lot of people thought building a
freeware OS was enough interesting and enough *fun* for them to bother
doing it.

the fact that some people - as far as i can tell, earnestly - want
Linux to take over the world, is in my eyes *wrong*. it's ass-
backwards, it's not what Linux is about.

by extension, i would say we don't need fancy GUIs and point-and-click
installation procedures. we don't need to convince people to use
Linux, we don't need market shares. commercial software might be
interesting, but only useful to Linux as a whole insofar as it's fun
value exceeds its monetary cost.
--
        "...Everybody got this broken feeling
         like their father or their dog just died..."
                                                        - Leonard Cohen

Quote:>> When someone comes up with a 'insert CD, click Install' method of installing
>> linux, it may become a 'masses' OS. Until then, we're stuck with MS.

>I agree with this, Linux needs to be easier.

                ____

                 \/

Quote:>It's an un-representative sample because it was taken at COMDEX. While some
>non-'computer geeks' attend, they number only a small fraction of the total.
>Taking a survey at ANY trade show is significant only within that trade. The
>original issue was 'Joe Sixpack' - specifically, the very people who DON'T go
>to COMDEX.

--
Darin Johnson

->>When someone comes up with a 'insert CD, click Install' method of installing
->> linux, it may become a 'masses' OS. Until then, we're stuck with MS.
->
->I agree with this, Linux needs to be easier.

It's called "RedHat 4.0".  Get it.

->> For business - Unix over linux because legal wants someone thay can sue.
->
->Have you looked at most software contracts, they specifically exclude
->fitness for purpose, we can't get a supplier to agree to inlcuding this.
->Then try to sue.  The best you can due is pay in tranches and if it
->fails to live up to spec refuse to pay the rest and let them take you to
->court.

True, but the original poster is correct:  the legal and business people
like to buy software because they don't trust freeware.
--
Craig Kelley --  "Beware the dark chocolate."  Forrest Yoda

...here's yet another (surprising?) place where you'll find an instance
of undefined behavior. Check out the hexify.c file from the
"arch/i386/kernel" directory. In the 2.0.23 kernel release, one will
find the following (which gives rise to the rumor that Schildt and
Torvalds have formed an unholy alliance):

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#include <stdio.h>

void main()
{
        int c;
        int comma=0;
        int count=0;
        while((c=getchar())!=EOF)
        {
                unsigned char x=c;
                if(comma)
                        printf(",");
                else
                        comma=1;
                if(count==8)
                {
                        count=0;
                        printf("\n");
                }
                if(count==0)
                        printf("\t");
                printf("0x%02X",c);
                count++;
        }
        if(count)
                printf("\n");
        exit(0);

Quote:}

void main, it's not just for DOS anymore. (Of course, there are a few
other things suspect in this code, too.)

--
=============================================================================

     linux for fun, M$ for $$$...and the NFL for what really counts!
=============================================================================

:   It depends on the installation.  McAfee's WebShield, which currently
:   only runs on a hardened Linux kernel, has a pretty much fire and
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A what?

--
William McBrine    | http://www.clark.net/pub/wmcbrine/html/

: > When someone comes up with a 'insert CD, click Install' method of installing
: > linux, it may become a 'masses' OS. Until then, we're stuck with MS.
:
: I agree with this, Linux needs to be easier.

Well look at the newest Redhat cd's..  What could be simpler than that!?
Woop, no clicking though, someone actually has to type in the word "REDHAT"..
That's the hard part!  After that, installation just blasts off..  I couldn't
believe how easy it was!  It took me longer to set up Win95's dial up networking
(on a freind's pc, i wont be caught dead running it..) than it took me to set
up dip!

--