Re: [cobalt-developers] nice knowing you all!

[Arthur Corliss <corliss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 23 Sep 2000, Dennis wrote:

> You can build a 1U box with 2 ethernets with 650Mhz PIII processor and a
> 15GB disk for about $800.  A RaQ3i is ~$2300. reseller price. Webmin is at
> least as good as the cobalt gui (and a lot faster), and its, yes, free. 

I haven't looked at Webmin in a long time (not to mention that the mere
thought of doing administrative tasks through a web browser gives me the
heebie jeebies), but when I did it was obvious that Webmin tried to be a lot
more feature complete than the Cobalt interface, and hence, much more
complicated a beast than what the Cobalt units provide.  In my mind, if I had
to set a luser in front of one of them, I'd definitely choose the Cobalt.

> So, my point is, that anyone buying this as just a box to run linux
> probably isnt very technically capable, or just plain has his head in the
> sand.

As is yours, since you're overlooking what Cobalt is selling (and no, as much
as they took advantage of the hype, it's not Linux):  ease of use, and ease of
deployment.  Something you pull out of a box and have running within five
minutes.  *That's* something you will never have with any distro, let alone
trying to build the box.

> which was exactly my original point, that the fact that it runs LINUX is
> not important to most of the people who buy it . They (cobalt) would be
> better off with a black box, because then they wouldnt have to deal with
> the constant whining of the linux community to fix the multitude of bugs
> that have little to do with the applications that make the boxes attractive.

The fact that it's running *something* will take paramount importance once
they try to implement features beyond what the UI allows.  There's a hell of
a lot more available in easy to install form for Linux than for Solaris.
Unless, of course, you expect the same non-technical lusers who need the
easy interface to compile from source. . .

	--Arthur Corliss
	  Bolverk's Lair -- http://www.odinicfoundation.org/arthur/
	  "Live Free or Die, the Only Way to Live" -- NH State Motto