Re: Aunt Tillie builds a kernel (was Re: ISA hardware discovery -- the elegant solution)

Eli Carter
2002-01-14T19:31:52Z

"Eric S. Raymond" wrote:
> Charles Cazabon <charlesc@discworld.dyndns.org>:
> > Yes, and yes. Aunt Tillie is running Linux because someone installed a
> > distribution for her.
>
> You don't know that. Maybe she installed it herself.

>From a box she bought at CompUSA (or equiv.). She is dependant upon the
distro maker for the service they provide to her... that's what she's
paying them for.

> > She is never going to need anything out of her kernel that her vendor-shipped
> > update kernels do not provide.
>
> *You can't know that.*
>
> And your belief that you *can* know it is a key part of the elitist
> developer psychology and implicit assumptions that keeps Linux mostly
> inaccessible to the Aunt Tillies of the world.

Then she needs a better distribution, or at least one that caters to her
needs.
If there isn't such a distribution for her, she is no longer "Aunt
Tillie", but has become "Aun7 71LL13" ;)

Ahem, sorry, couldn't resist. :) I'll be quiet now.

Eli
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