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Re: Projected new front page

"
I have cut the picture above the woman's
breasts, the flag is blue instead of being the french flag and I have
removed the bayonnets.
"

just a suggestion -

leave the bayonets out, put the woman's shoulders and face back into the
picture, and cut the picture below the waist.  ; °  D      to provide more
standard English see other changes below.


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<TITLE>Independence project: Linux for the masses</TITLE>
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<h1>Independence Linux: The user's revolt</h1>

<p>We want Linux to become the dominant operating system.  But this
will not happen if Linux remains a system for an elite, it will not
happen if Linux follows the steps of a system (Unix) which never made
significant inroads into two vital areas: the desk top and the personal
computer.</p>

<h2>A distribution belonging to us, the users</p>

<p>
Independence is not just one of these commercial distributions which
has been appearing daily for the last months. It aspires to being a
distribution allowing the users to make heard their own voices within
distribution design.  It is built by volunteers who no longer accept
having an aristocracy of distribution designers providing solutions
which have little relevance to the problems faced by most Linux users.
It is built by people who refuse to accept that present distributions
neglect time
and again two areas which are vital for Linux's smooth transition into the
future: the desk top
and the personal computer.
</p>

<h2>Why do we revolt?<h2>

<p>
Year after year, and version after version distribution designers have
been living within a insulated Unix world which has little relevance to
the Linux world in which we now live.

<ul>

<li>When Unix was never used at home distribution designers ignored the
problems of the dial up user,  made distributions which are basically
useless for a personal user or made the absurd assumption that people
would let their computers burn kilowatt after kilowatt paid by the user- 24
hours a day.

<li>Distribution designers still ship distributions which are basically
unforgiving to user errors and start far too many daemons by default
-each unneeded daemon is a potential security hole-.  In fact they rely
on the Unix model: an expensive system used in organizations who will
provide an experienced system administrator to fix problems.

<li>Distribution people still assume that Linux will remain confined
to the server role like its Unix brethren.  Thus they didn't care
about manual mountings -a minor problem in servers, a sizable loss of
time in work stations-, neglect productivity software and don't seem to
know that you could need much more than Samba when interacting with
Windows computers.

</ul>

<p>
The problem is: Linux is inexpensive and that does not make it an
inexpensive Unix but a system which will be used for tasks for which Unix
was
never used and by people who are different from traditional Unix users.
Linux growth needs for Linux to expand into those areas from which Unix was
absent and
which are presently sorely neglected by traditional distributions. For
Linux to expand into its future market share as it displaces Windows we have
to learn to <HREF
<em>Think Linux</em>>.
</p>

<p>
We at project Independence are tired of seeing people asking for help
from Windows because nobody cares about the problems of the dial-up
user, we are tired of distributions which assume that we don't have a life,
we are tired of unforgiving distributions built on the assumption that the
Linux user has a nanny to fix problems until he knows how to fix them
by himself.  When at the office we are tired of being unable to get the
messages of the NT print server and we are tired of the sardonic smile
in the face of the Windows activist when he sees us struggle with
smbmount.  We are tired of waiting for a distribution designed for the
<Linux world HREF Think Linux>.
</p>


<H2>The Independence distribution

Independence is a free distribution designed for the users by users.
We built it because we feel that by ignoring those people who don't
fit into the classical Unix schema distribution designers are treating
them like second class users. They are also slowing Linux growth
outside the Unix ecological niche that is 95% of the users.

You can find more info about the distribution in the<HREF distribution
page>.

Independence is volunteer work and it will make faster progress if
<em>you</em> participate. If you believe that the Linux user is
different and needs <HREF <em>Linux</em> solutions Think Linux>, if
you believe that we, users of the front line, are in the best position
to determine what is good for us, if you want Linux spreading
everywhere then

<H3> Join us <HREF> Page d'adhésions <H3>

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