Paul Talacko wrote:
On Sat, 18 Mar 2000, Michael Hasenstein wrote:
Absolutely correct. BUT: There is not much Linux has to offer to many of the people now using Windows, and there used to be little for people using
If by 'many' you mean average Joe or Jan User at home, then Linux has a lot to offer and tons of money for them to spend on their retirement portfolio, not Bill Gate's. Joe or Jan User does internet browsing on ESPN or CROSSINGS, email, letter writing, geneology, checkbook accounting (without the stock market options - we're talking average user here), and perhaps some games or sound stuff like playing audio CDs. Some may even scan and edit images and the like. SuSE has these areas covered like a blanket... click and fire. <snip>
Against all of the above, Linux doesn't look pretty. For novices, it is difficult, e.g. setting up an internet connection is a hassle (although there have been huge improvements in the last few months). Also, Linux doesn't look like Windows and therefore is unfamiliar. Interesting to see whether any clever developers are trying to copy the Windows interface widget by widget. Interesting to try it with the Mac too.
I would hate to see Linux get locked into a 'me too' attitude when it comes to look and feel. Besides, too much of the screen realestate is being taken up with toolbars and icons. What I think would be neat is to put a gradiant map on the title bar of the 'window' (or frame, or what ever you want to call it) and as you move your mouse along the title bar icons appear on the screen. Clicking the title bar when the desired icon is showing selects that context, which either fires the chosen app or remaps the title bar to the new layer of choices. I hereby transfer this idea (intellectual property) to the GNU Foundation and the GPL. (Prior Art - Netscape tries to recover realestate by hiding toolbars with a left-margin button, but it doesn't work well unless you resize the screen.) Winxxxx's are such moving targets we would be putting ourselves into the same situtation that IBM was in trying to make Win3.1 work transparently with OS/2. One little tweek and Win3.1 - OS/2 compatibility was broken. In a similar vein, the WINE project has put itself into such a bind. It is always in a catchup race trying to become compatible with the latest WinXXXX release, which it will never do. VWare has made that race moot, anyway, at least until M$ tweeks its OS to make compatibility with VWare impossible.
Linux is also missing a few essential apps: a spreadsheet that is as fully featured as Excel, and a vector drawing program. The GIMP also, as far as I know, can't handle CMYK colour separation and Pantone colours, which for a lot of people will make it unusable. On Slashdot a few people were lamenting the lack of good sound apps. However, your average user doesn't need any of these things.
I have QCad on my system. It is FREE and is an excellent vector drawing program. Looks like AutoCad 1.0 for Windows. Also, there is Varkon, a VERY powerful professional CAD and modeling app. Also free. Not to mention the commerical stuff. I think that Blender, a complete 3D modeling and animation suite, can also be used as a vector drawing program... yup... just glancing through their excellent manual it seems one can use it in such a way.
However, the biggest thing that Linux has got against it is inertia (especially from the corporate sector). Oh, my lord it's different, we couldn't possibly consider it.
Maybe it is not so much inertia as fear. Where I work the IT folks are afraid their NCE's and MSCE's will be useless if a switch is made to Linux, so they argue for MS everytime Linux is mentioned. They are wrong, of course. Their hardware skills will still be needed. Their knowledge of networking is not dependent on the OS, unless they could only change network parameters by clicking buttons on MS or Novell apps. Also, it appears that their MSCE certification will expire very soon now, anyway, as M$ is demanding that all MSCE's recertify in W2K before Jan 1st. If our dept doesn't move to W2K (can you call it an 'upgrade'?) their W2K certification is useless. Aside: At work we've been using the Win95 platform to do my development on. We have made a deliberate decision NOT to move to W2K. A couple of weeks ago it was decided that I needed to burn some transmittal CDs every week, so the IT folks ordered an HP-Writer. When it arrived I discovered I needed to install Win98 to get it to work. That FORCED me to move to Win98. Similar circumstances will FORCE many folks to move to W2K as M$ entices OEMs to make hardware which is compatible ONLY with W2K. JLK -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/