My question; Could Dorothy from Kansas use SuSE 6.3 and make a living in the Land of OZ? -- Kirk Moore Renton, Wa Black Holes are created when God divides by zero -----Original Message----- From: avi@CFFtechnologies.com [mailto:avi@CFFtechnologies.com] Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2000 8:46 AM Cc: Suse Linux Mailing List Subject: Re: [SLE] CNN, SusE, Lousy PR Sorry, but the ability to read a document or relay it back is different then doing collaborative work on some very large an complex documents. When I talk about complex documents I am talking about documents with embedded graphics, tables, Visio diagrams, VB macros, etc. Anyone that tells me that StarOffice does a very good job with Word/Excell 97 documents didn't use it in the above mentioned scenarios. Sorry. Whether I like Office or not is immaterial. The fact that all 1300 consultants in the company I work for and 100% of our clients use MS office, makes it the de facto standard. Until 1. the standard changes or 2. Linux will get a MS office (Yeah, right), Linux will be considered second rate citizen on the desktop. Sure, you can find your way around many things, but this is not what most end users are looking for. What they want is the ability to run and use the same software they use at work. Avi SJ Black wrote:
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 the idiot user. Not the availability of apps, not the idiot-proofness of 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
-- Avi Schwartz Get a Life avi@CFFtechnologies.com Get Linux -- 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/ -- 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/