From: Joe Hylkema To: SJ Black ; SuSE Mailing List Subject: Re: [SLE] CNN, SusE, Lousy PR Date: Sunday, 5 March 2000 22:34

At the risk of starting a flamewar, I completely agree with Miss Black. I reject the idea that Linux can't compete with M$ on the desktop, especially in a corporate environ ment.

As for compatibility with M$ apps, I regularly open my papers that I did on Word 6.0 a few years back, print them, and hand them in this semester as my "research project" using WordPerfect 8 for Linux. And the price was right - free as opposed to $300 - $1,000 for M$ Office. :) Works beautifully. I need Money$uck for two things. One of them is watching my DVD movies (I have an ATI Rage Fury DVD-accelerated video card and ATI has been less than forthcoming with Linux support. If anyone can help out here let me know.) The other is doing my homework for my "Programming with Visual BASIC" course. Don't really have a choice there, do I? And as I mentioned earlier, I'm only a couple of notches above a desktop user. I'm not a hacker by any means.

I disgree with Miss Black about the Netscape crashes somewhat - Netscape does crash, but it crashes MUCH less often than Internet Exploder.

On another note, I think preconfigured, preloaded Linux boxes would be an excellent choice for users like Susan, the secretary at my church. In her words "I only use a comptuer because I have to and I don't give a shit how it works, just make it work!" Which would be a better choice for the Susans of this world - something that flashes up an "EXPLORER.EXE caused a general protection fault in module 0xblahblahblah . . . "? Or a product that can be left running for years without so much as a restart and that is worlds ahead in stability and security?

Make no mistake about it. Linux boxes running X Windows are ready for

desktop and more than ready to supplant anything M$ has to offer.

Just my $0.02 worth from a poor college student.

SJ Black wrote:

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I don't understand what the noise is all about. Roland Dyroff is right about every point he brought up.

OK, if you think this is so, please be specific. I'm curious as to what cannot be done under Linux. I haven't found anything so far.

I can read MS Word documents. I can certainly translate them into hypertext with minimal fuss and time, and relay them back to whomever sent them. I can listen to anything, from MP3's to .wav to .mod files. Hell, I can even produce files in all of those formats. I can set up a network, get mail, and do all manner of thing, both in business-related activity, and in programming. I can get shockwave-enabled web pages. To paraphrase the X-Files, the stuff is out there. Mostly, it's free!

I have *completely* supported hardware. The only time this was not the case, i was running a winmodem. Easily rectified, even on a tiny budget. I even hear that drivers for winmodems are in the works.

Netscape crashes? Under what conditions? Usually, there are dead-easy solutions/ workarounds. Another milestone, another improvement.

<snip> the ability to handle MS Office documents (Word, Excel, etc.) with 100% accuracy.

Let me give you an example of why this is *not* the be all and end-all for businesses: Apple. Runs M$ Office stuff well. Reliable. All kinds of apps available for it. Still struggling to get a bigger slice of the pie. Why? It's easier than any PC to run out of the box...

Son, the difference is marketing. Who presents what kind of image to

...

idiot user. Not the availability of apps, not the idiot-proofness of

UM, I really must agree. The only thing was to ask what percentage would you give M$ to be desktop ready. Splitting Operating System Stability and User Approved Application I give the following. System 10% Application 90% csijon ---------- the the the

...

system. Marketing. And Dyroff is doing really lousy things to SuSE's image by what he's said.

Improve the system? Always...ever since '91. That's what differentiates the Open Source gang from the Microsoft gang.

Believe it or not, it's ready. Not perfect, but ready.

Alpha

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-- ____________________ Joseph A. Hylkema josephhy@wsu.edu

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