ian wrote:
Just to play devils advocate. First how do I run RMs primary maths software (Don't say Wine as I don't know what ti is or whether it will work for sure ;-) ) Second if it goes wrong and its Windows its just the
Why not Wine? It works very well for a lot of tasks. There are also commercial versions available, which extend the core Wine functionality (e.g. Crossover Office). I'm using it at work to run Lotus Notes (under FreeBSD). A major advantage is that you can simply try the software to see if it works. If it doesn't, you haven't lost anything, apart from a bit of time. Most Windows software now seems to work under Wine, unless it does something *really* strange (and then you have the option of using native Windows DLLs, rather than native Wine ones).
way technology works. If it goes wrong and its Linux, I should have bought Windows. I have just been giving some INSET at a site where we
Yes. Unfortunately, that's just a mentality you'd have to get used to. Windows is expected to crash. People are used to it, expect it. With Linux, they hear stories about how really stable it is, they expect miracles from it :-) And, whereas the core of the OS is stable, that doesn't necessarily mean all the applications are. I've had KDE and/or X crash out on me quite a few times. It could be down to the software, or slightly flaky hardware, I'm not sure exactly (possibly even a combination). However, if Windows did that, you'd shrug and restart. It's expected. Linux, because it's billed as being so solid and stable, will immediately get the reaction that there's something wrong with it, and you should have stuck with Windows.
have over 100 stations using Linux thin clients, KDE desktop. OO.org etc. Some enthusiastic people, some who are totally disinterested and some who are terrified of anything with a keyboard. IT is a con. Until the critical mass of confidence in something else is achieved the Windows con will persist. I believe it will change but its going to take a bit of shifting.
Yeah. But it'll really only shift when the educational program makers write Unix versions of their programs. Once they do that, then schools may get enough confidence in Unix/Linux. Dan