On Tuesday 05 February 2002 23:13, Bruce Miller wrote:
As a post script to my earlier missive:
I am still finding my feet with Linux. It seems to me though, that there are a lot of people trying to make the whole thing a slicker and more GUI driven. Compare www.debian.org to www.xandros.com who have built upon the Debian then Corel distro. Even the name Debian is a bit naff now. ((Debra and Ian)4ever) Well intended in it's day but we need to get much slicker, much sharper and much more professional.
Ok, text only interface, 640x480 x256 colours are still used by third world and poorer countries. We still need to address the issues that these people have. However, the other side of the coin is that Broadband Britain is happening, albeit slowly, but it is happening. Where does Linux fit in with these new horizons?
Mandrake provides an easy graphical install and KDE a GUI similar to Windows and as long as you have 2 meg of video RAM you can get good graphics resolution even on an old thin client
We have Gimp. What else does Linux have though?
Star Office with Star Draw, Logo, Squeak to name a few and that would keep most pupils going for a long time if we expected them to use all the applications properly and with expertise.
What is there in the line of Macromedia Flash?
Flash player with Netscape. Probably a port of Framemaker for DTP but it would be expensive.
Is there an equivalent to Dream Weaver? What about 3D Max and AutoCAD and Adobe illustrator? Do we have any good DTP software like Quark
Framemaker
or even to match MS Publisher.
Doubt it, Publisher is too Naff to have an equivalent on Linux :-) Use Star Draw and Starwiter.
I know Corel have dabbled but this has all been discontinued it seems.
Star Draw does everything you are likely to need in a school.
Does any one know anything about these ? Are they available or are people still hankering after text interfaces and command line OS's and there is nothing doing ?
Hardly ever use a command line but its handy to have it if you do need it. Regards, -- IanL