I was browsing around the net searching for some tutorials for LDAP on ubuntu and something dawned on me while reading through some blogs, forums and websites. What the hell are Linux’s goals? Now at first I thought I had the answer for the question but then I realized, that what I thought definately cant be the goals because nobody in the net is facing in that direction.

To bring you up to speed on what I’m saying here, I thought initially that the goal of linux and all the distro’s available out there is to provide a cheap (free) alternative to windows that is both user-friendly, secure and … well… close to perfect. However I have come to the realization that none of the users of linux really think about those goals (if those are the goals). Linux is only made for the L33T it seems, you can say all you want about how the distro’s are getting so user-friendly and how they are getting rid of dependency on CLI but, why is it that when I search around linux forums all i see are topics with names that include abbreviations like fsck and ldap (which is strange cuz thats wat i was searching for) etc.

What about the simple problems that Joe n00b may have, and what about the simple explanations that Joe may require? This is the reason why linux hasn’t been taking off in the consumer market they way we linux users feel it should be. If you search for a simple thing as installing software with linux, you are faced with hundreds of webpages that all talk about package managers and packages and the .tar.gz etc … Why the hell should Joe n00b switch to a different o/s when he cant even understand what the hell the people who know about the o/s are saying? When is the last time you tried to explain something linux based in proper english without the use of one abbreviation? If you cant answer this question in 3 seconds then obviously you are a part of the problem.

Now you may say that i am being harsh by calling it a problem, but the fact is its the truth. Linux and all of its users are l33t there are no non-l33t hardcore linux users, the reason is its too hard to understand what the bloody hell the l33t users are talking about. How can we expect to get support for this o/s if we cant sell it to the majority of computer users (Joe n00b’s family + cousins, + second cousins, +3 cousins, +5th cousins twiced removed and the other billion family members he has).

Before ending I will further establish my point by saying this… Find one of joe n00b’s relatives (Nadine N00b) and try to explain to her how to install a program in windows, and then try to do the same thing with any linux distro. When you realize that you start ranting and raving about things you MIGHT have to do and things you SHOULDNT forget to do or else you might have to start over the installation or the o/s, then you will get what i’ve been saying. I wont even get into teaching people how to configure stuff lol.

Oh and here’s just a few lines from a page I found about installing and configuring Ldap the lines i posted are instructions on how to install it. I rest my case.

$ sudo aptitude install slapd ldap-utils libnss-ldap libpam-ldap

    samba smbldap-tools smbclient

    samba-doc perl-doc