At 08:55:59 on Tuesday Tuesday 20 April 2010, Mark Goldstein
On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 8:54 PM, Stan Goodman
wrote: At 20:01:06 on Monday Monday 19 April 2010, Mark Goldstein
wrote: On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 7:35 PM, Stan Goodman
wrote: ...
Oh, I did that first thing (see my paragraph just above yours). It isn't worth trying further to massage it;
Hmm, strange. What could be the difference between our systems? Mine is 11.1, 32-bits. KDE-3.
Mine is 11.1, x84_64, KDE3.
...I've taken the easy way out, and installed the Windows binary in the WinXP virtual machine that I keep handy for just such purposes.
I did the same when I bumped into one book in LIT format that Linux version of Calibre could not open. Windows version, (more advanced) opened it OK.
In passing, I have to remark that the developer's non-chalance about the impressive array of installation woes described in great detail all over the Web is typical of what causes Linux users to remain only 10% (at most) of users, which in turn explains a lot about why so many important websites (banks, government offices, etc) are unusable except with Internet Explorer. And that will never get any better.
Well, I can understand the situation when few guys are developing the product. They just can´t cover all possible flavors of the systems. They provide the sources and instructions and then the users of specific distribution can contribute binary installation for their system.
That is very true, and to be realistic, it's a fundamental disadvantage of open-source. And the multiplicity of distributions, which seems to many to be a great advantage, simply spreads the talent out into a very thin layer.
I guess, situation with Websites is different. The Web programmers just were taught using MS tools and extensions (e.g for jscript) that are often non-standard. The situation is slowly improving and more and more sites are working with FF now (BG airport is one bad example - still accessible only from MS IE).
The airport and the sick funds in this country; many banks in the US, and that is a result of the criminal monopolist methods of Gates, right from the beginning. But that wouldn't happen if Linux was on a larger percentage if computers. At this point, it perpetuates the niche nature of Linux, and the multiplicity of distros adds to that. Look at the Calibre site, by the way, and see what distros he has bothered to make binaries for; at least two of them I have never even heard of in any other context. The offered excuse for requiring Internet Explorer, by the way, is that "it is more secure than Firefox" =;-/8. Translated into English, that is "our web designer learned in a Microsoft course, and doesn't know how to do anything else". I also downloaded the new Kindle software, by the way, and put it on the virtual WinXP (Viva, VirtualBox!). Amazon is talking about making one for OSX; Linux isn't even mentioned, because it isn't worth the effort and expense, partly because of the multiplicity of distros for which binaries would have to be prepared. It would be nice if they would release a generic source for Linux, which people could compile for themselves. But they probably would not like to expose the source, nor would they be interested in tending to the consequent need for support. -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org