> My idea is basically this. Take a look at what defines a "desktop" in a > Win or Mac environment and look at open source alternatives to what is > already there. Take a look at the projects out there; particularly those > whose scope covers multiple platforms and present those to people. Some > uses Windows....show them that they don't need to abandon their > OS...someone used Mac....show them they can have the same applications as > their Linux and Windows brethren. >
First off ... some basic fundamentals. There is a hierarchy of software that runs on your computer to have a desktop environment. 1. Operating System - the actual interaction from the system to your hardware (like video, and network cards, memory, buses etc.) 2. Window Library - A library with the ability to visually represent something on your screen (like a window). This would be X11, or the windows base level library (I'm not knowledgeable in that, so I don't know what to call it) 3. Window Manager - a program that gives you the flexibility to manipulate windows drawn from the window library. Usually limited in capabilities, and features. (Blackbox, Enlightenment, FVWM, Sawfish, Icewm are examples) 4. Desktop Environment - A desktop environment will incorporate a window manager, which uses the windows library, to interact with your operating system, which will interact with your computer. See how it all ties in together? A desktop environment will have a framework of applications (like KDE). These applications will have the same look and feel, and can interact with one another. (Hyperlinks open in konqui, email will open in KMail when sending, Apollon has the IRC widget inside it, etc). It all uses the same framework of code. Blackbox is not a desktop. Enlightenment on it's own is not a desktop. KDE _is_ a desktop. Windows _is_ a desktop. You can choose to run several different applications to suit your needs. In fact you can actually run applications from a different desktop (running KDE apps in Gnome for example). And you can run applications built for a different operating system. (I use Internet Explorer run through wine for web testing on a frequent basis) The major difference between any Unix based system and windows is this. In our world you know what choices you have. The majority use X11 as the window library. However, if someone wished to write a new window library it would not be impossible. You have a large choice of window managers. I already mentioned a few. And the Desktops really come down to two options (KDE and Gnome). With windows you get windows as your OS, Library, Manager, Desktop. It's everything all at once. No choice. Windows tightly couples all of the parts that build a desktop. Other systems do not have that coupling. You can tell this from the linguistics of people talking. "I'm running windows 2003" "I'm running Gnome on Fedora Core 2" "I'm running KDE 3.3 on SuSE 9.1" "I'm running Blackbox on Mandrake 10.0" "I'm running FVWM on Open BSD" notice the difference? > LUG's. Aaron mentioned that there are a variety of "Desktops" out there. > Let's ask them what "Desktop" they use and ask them there apps. I think > you can see where I am going here. > I can tell you what people use a computer for. It is for a professional purpose, or it isn't. Either work or pleasure. Lets think about the differences between those: Work uses: Development (coding), Research, Communication, Management Pleasure uses : Games, Research, Communication, Management The real difference is at work ... you use it to work. Not to say there is not crossover. I play games at work sometimes. And some people's jobs are in communication, or management. That's not the point. Take communication for example. Communication involves applications for Email and Newsgroups, Instant Messaging, IRC. You would communicate different information at work than at home. There are several applications to do these tasks, and the details of each task will be different. It is unclear what exactly you want to accomplish, and unclear how you wish to do it. If it is a comparasin of desktops ... the difference is what I mentioned earlier in 4 points. If what you want to do is compare specific applications that perform tasks (like MSN messenger vs amsn vs GAIM vs Kopete), that information is freely available on the Internet. For example googling for "linux office suite", the first three hits are koffice.org, openoffice.org and sun.com for Star Office. All one would have to do is use their current "Desktop" and do a little "Research". :-) If you want to collect information comparing all the available options for email clients in different operating systems, and the freely offer it to the public. Go right ahead. I'm not saying that people should be kept in anyway from the information, but if your goal is to give them everything right from the beginning ... they will have no motivation to actually learn something on their own. I'd prefer it if people showed a little initiative, and put some work into gaining some knowledge. If they are serious about investing in another operating system, then they will learn about it. If they are not serious ... then they won't care what applications are available anyway. > I will give an example of what I am talking about: > * Office Suite: OpenOffice.org (Windows, Mac & Linux versions) > * Instant Messaging: Gaim (Windows, Mac & Linux versions) > * Database: MySQL (Windows, Mac & Linux versions...I think?) > ...Get the point? MySQL is a database "server" application. Not desktop. Good luck, Andy _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca
