Ian Lynch wrote:
Its the people that use Windows and who are used to Outlook that are
making all the fuss. Most Linux users don't seem to have the problem.
Well... with all due respect and not to put too fine a point on it, most
Linux users are accustomed to apps that are "good enough". They're used
to peripherals that don't work as well or at all. I mean it took me a
good couple of weeks to get wireless networking working on two computers
under Linux here. The same thing that takes maybe 10 minutes under Windows.
And, in particular, the open-source credo seems to be toward single-use
apps that do one thing well, but only one thing.
I can get calendaring through web calendar and have it accessiblt
anywhere. Its not really anything to do with E-mail anyway.
Ah... but that's where you're wrong. If you have the KDE apps installed
I invite you to open up Kontact. This is very similar to Outlook... at
least it's headed in that direction.
It functions as sort of a unifying framework for the individual
functions of mail, address book, calendar, to-do list, journal, So, for
instance, you can create a new event in the calendar that is a meeting,
and there's a tab for "Attendees". You can then choose the attendees
from your address book. I guess this then puts an invite or something on
their calendars.
Even better would be a button that opens up the email app with the
attendees addresses filled in so you could send them all a note. Maybe
this does this, I'm not sure.
The point is that all these different kinds of items mail, contacts,
calendar entries, etc. can all relate to items of the other kinds.
Outlook goes further and allows you to associate almost anything with
anything else. Including ordinary files like docs or spreadsheets.
You also get nice little timesavers that are missing from Evolution,
Kontact, or the Mozilla products. For example, if you right click on a
contact in the address book, among the options are call the contact,
email the contact, and compose a letter to the contact. The last option
opens up Word and loads the letter template wizard. You choose the
style, fill in blanks, and click your way through the dialogs. At the
end of that process you have a pre-formatted letter complete with
addresses and boilerplate ready for you to finish.
Whatever is
done, some people will not be satisfied unless the development exactly
mirror what they are used to on Windows and Outlook. That is why its a
platform issue. That's why I said for some Windowsphiles, unless the
environment is an exact clone of what they are used to they won't be
satisfied.
You're being too pessimistic. It doesn't have to *look* the same; it
just needs to be able to do the same things without taking twice as long
or being more complicated. The purpose of computers is, after all, to
mechanize intellectual labor. The more of that they can do, the better
they fulfill their function.
It's simply a question of
functionality. I'd use linux if it did anything that I need better than
Windows does.
But the point about disruptive technologies is whether it does what is
needed well enough at least initialy for a sizeable minority.
Then I would appreciate it if folks would stop harping on how great
Linux is and how much Windows sucks. You can't have it both ways. It
can't simultaneously be "superior" and "good enough". At least not
overall or on the same characteristics, although each platform can and
does have it's strengths and weaknesses. I tire of the cognitive dissonance.
Clearly it
does. I'm a member of the sizeable minority, you probably aren't. As the
new technology improves it becomes "good enough" for more people. That
does seem to be what is happening now. It does not have to be better, it
has to tend towards becoming as good as in key areas at lower cost. In
fact its a bit more complex because Linux and OOo are better than
Windows and MSO in some respects. There are also probably no massive new
aspects of functionality that the majority of people need to enable MSO
to stop people adopting OOo.
It's not the majority that's important. The masses don't affect societal
change, the leaders and key players do. And the leaders and key players
are the folks that need and use and expect the higher functionality.
--
Rod
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