IFF what you need is a Unix desktop, then Linux is ready. When I started with BMC in late Spring of 1995, the resources available to me were a bit limitted: I had a 31xx series (IBM, coax) terminal. But while that was fine for my VM tasks, it didn't facilitate my Unix responsibilities. Next I got an HP X terminal. This was ... usable. I wanted a Sun. Never got one. For the Unix desktop, Sun was king at that time, with AIX and HP fighting it out for second place.
Eventually, I got a shiney new HP Vectra (PC), which came with Windows installed, if I recall. Having used Linux for some time in previous work, I straight away installed it in a dual-boot config, but wound up using it more than Windows. Linux was faster and more stable than Windows. [preaching to the choir, I know] But I was, and still am, in the most techno part of the company. Since that time, Linux has served as my Unix desktop host system, though I try to maintain an agnostic stance. For many things, it really doesn't matter whether the host is Linux, AIX, Solaris, IRIX, or HP-UX. My preferred WM would be FVWM just out of principle, and it is available, but I wind up on KDE as a matter of practicality. VNC adds disconn/reconn flexibility. (Try THAT with Windows.) I have a clean, robust, and well featured Windows 2000 image available via multi-boot. I rarely use it. This is not perfect. (Linux is not ready?) I am looking for a better e-mail program. I *like* MS Outlook. Would be using Outlook if I could get the native Win/2K partition (SCSI) attached to a VMware guest. (SCSI issues with physical partitions and VMware. Long story.) For MS Word, MS Excel, and MS PowerPoint, the functionality of OpenOffice is sufficient. Acrobat is Acrobat: Works well on Linux (on any Unix?) though is less pretty around the edges. The real-time interoperability of applications is the killer. (Linux is not ready?) Expecting certain drag-n-drop operations has led to new infrastructure (dcopserver, klauncher, and others). These are the instability point for the Linux desktop, along with Java. We are losing some of the mix-n-match aspect of X windows. Personally, I would rather lose the drag-n-drop. ALL of the traditional X apps work NOW. Linux is ready. IFF what you need is a Unix desktop, then Linux HAS BEEN ready for quite some time. Just one more testimonial, for what it's worth. -- R;
