Avi, I am in full agreement with your position here. There are many capabilities that the Linux desktop lacks. I have been running the KDE since it was in Alpha. StarOffice is unstable for me, and it is not as powerful as MS-Office. I personally don't like Word, but there are many powerful things you can do with it. As just one example of what one can do with MS Office which we cannot do with Linux is this: I opened my Datek account in IE and swiped across the table showing my current holdings and their status. I copied this directly to an Excell spreadsheet. Excell accepted the data perfectly, and even colored the fields as they are colored in the Datek page. It is generally much easier to import data into Excell than it is into SO. Microsoft has accomplished many of their powerful functionality using COM, as I understand things. Koffice is building on CORBA which is an open standard counterpart to COM. Another promising development is JB and EJB. This new OO technology may prove to be powerful enough to give MS a run for their money. As regards interoperability, this is an old MS tactic. It is clear to reasonable minds that MS regularly released "upgrades" that prevented interoperablility with other products, e.g., Word verses WordPerfect. I believe many of the forms of data used in internetworking communications should be standardized around something like XML. If someone wants to extend XML for their own needs, there should be a standard way to communicate the extensions to users regardless of platform. My first real experience with computers came in 1980 outside a little town called Ansbach in Bavaria. I was the first soldier in the US Army to field the Hawk IPAR with its new digital signal processor components. I had a total of five years of experience with the Hawk System. After several years of pushing pencils to solve physics problems I returned to computers. Starting in 1992 I have built and installed hundreds of PC workstations, dozens of Novell, NT, and Unix servers, and currently work on a very sophisticated engineering project. I spend about 80 hours a week at a keyboard, or otherwise involved with computers. I have supported hundreds of end users, and I use computers for every aspect of my life except for the three Ss in the morning (Defecating, Showering, and Shaving). I have worked with NT since it was in early beta. For many day-to-day functions Win32 is more convenient and powerful than Linux. There are some very nice things about the Linux Desktop (KDE) that are superior to MS, but the range of functionality supported by MS is superior. Here is another hopeful project for bridging the MS Linux divide: http://www.winehq.com/ As for Roland Dyroff's comments, I think he is doing something that many people in the IT industry don't do; he is telling the truth. Joke: Q: what's the difference between a used car salesman and a computer salesman? A: A used car salesman knows when he's lying! Avi Schwartz wrote:
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/