No flame here Douglas. Let me add my comment and philosophy on this.
Microsoft is only in slight trouble now, and that is because they have
NOT delivered what they promised. For Linux to succeed we need to be
honest with potential users. For example Linux was NEVER developed with
stability as a primary goal. As a Unix product it is considered quite
unstable. What is amazing is the MS's commercial products are SO bad that
Linux appears relatively stable.
I have a friend who tried it as a MS
replacement and was unhappy, he told two friends and so on. As I stated
before I am told that StarOffice is quite good, reads power point, and
word docs BETTER than Corel for Windows (or so I am told).
However, we do have a chicken and egg problem. What I have found
effective for SOME commercial clients is the following dialog (greatly
shortened and less tactful than when actually presented).
C: Is what you are installing MS compatible?
M: No
C: Ok, I don't want it
M: Why is compatibility your only issue, or is it cost of producing
product?
C: What?
M: Don't you use computers to be more efficient and isn't the ultimate
test if the system saves you money
C: Guess so
M: I will GUARANTEE you that I will install and maintain this Linux system
for X% (usually 30) less than a comparable MS system
C: Ok, that is worth a try
Alternatively, you can point out that they would not pay 75% extra to use
a standard Pen, Typewriter, Copier why should they do it of OS's. With
the cost being maintenance NOT original cost which is negligible.
In any case as long as the only issue is MS compatibility LINUX will not
succeed. Why, that makes MS a privately held STANDARD and thus impossible
to compete with. This can end only two ways. One, MS evolved to be the
standard and the government forces it open (like telephones). Two, people
realize that relying on a private body that makes HUGE profits by selling
products for MUCH more than they are worth is a bad idea and adopt other
standards. Personally, my bet is on the latter with companies
standardizing on Java applets. MS has done such a BAD job of writing
efficient code that you can write snappier interpreted Java code for many
tasks.
In any case I continue to be a happy Unix/Linux/(occasional Windows) user.
"The punishment which the wise suffer, who refuse to take part in
government, is to live under the government of worse men." Plato
_________________________________________________________________________
Justin Shriver PhD Student
G041 W.E Lay Autolab, 1231 Beal Avenue Phone: (313) 647-9732
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2121, USA Fax: (313) 647-3170
http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~jshriver E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
_________________________________________________________________________
On Mon, 25 Jan 1999, Douglas Wagner wrote:
> No offense to you ryan by using you as an example in this case, but this
> goes back to a previous argument that appeared on this list. For linux to
> truely be accepted in any of the desktop communities, it's going to have to
> find some way to RELIABLY (even at all) support microsoft products. Yes,
> we could suggest he use Word Perfect 8 (downloadable from any major
> download site), and learn HTML....but you can't make this type of
> suggestion to corporations. The unfortunate and bad reality here is that
> too many people use MS applications. If Linux ever supported MS apps, MS
> would be in DEEP trouble.
>
> To answer your question Ryan, Linux is a freeware operating system of the
> UNIX flavor. It is an incredibly stable UNIX os that includes a window
> manager and command line interface. However, and i'm going to get massivly
> flamed for this right now, it's uses are mostly in software development.
> LINUX does not, and probably never will, support MS-Office products. If
> you use MS products, LINUX probably will not work for you. You will get
> many people telling you it is a superior operating system, and it IS a
> superrior operating system, but mostly in ways a normal end user couldn't
> care less about. It handles running multiple programs much better than MS,
> it is MUCH more stable and rarely if ever crashes. It is built to stay up
> and running for ages (a linux box I used to administrate was up for well
> over 7 months, and it only came down when power to the University it was
> running at was cut accidentaly). There are 3 or 4 basic text editors, a
> kick ass c/c++ compiler, it will support Netscape, and there are a few
> commercial applications currently being developed for Linux. All in all
> it's a wonderful operating system and a good thing to look at and play
> with. However, if you use mostly Windows based programs, i'd say about 95%
> of what you currently use isn't and won't be supported any time soon. I'd
> love to tell you that linux is your answer. I'd love to say that you could
> find equivalent programs for most of what you use (and could import your
> current files). And i'd love to say that with a bit of work or with a
> little more time you will be able to use linux for your work and drop that
> horrid piece of **** that is termed an operating system and sold only to
> milk money out of your wallet...but the truith and fact of the matter is
> that if you have a set of applications you can use, and they happen to be
> MS apps, you are sort of SOL unless you want a major headache of re-doing
> all your work. Until someone in the linux development community realizes
> that the only thing holding Linux back from trouncing MS in the operating
> system market is Linux's complete inability to support software built for
> windows, then linux probably will never become a major operating system
> player, at least not in the desktop market.
>
> Douglas Wagner
>
> p.s. Yea..go ahead and roll the flames out...but I challange anyone out
> there who's planning to flame me to really contridict my statements on
> Linux's downfalls. Yea..with enough digging and weeks of work I could
> probably replace all my software with versions supported by linux, download
> or buy converters to all the file formats I use so that things I do in
> linux could be supported and used and modified in the other worlds. But in
> reality, no business will ever do that, and no computer user who's simply
> interested in getting work done in the easyest way possible will ever do
> that. When I can pop a cd into my system, have it automaticaly pull up a
> box saying click here to install, it automaticaly installs all this fun
> stuff onto my computer, and I can now work with any files in the office or
> that would be sent to me across the internet i'm not sure what reason there
> is to switch to linux. Where I have to unmount my cd, mount the instal cd,
> find where it is mounted in the filestructure, run some install script that
> (unless written by a reputable company) will as likely fail as succeed,
> have to download 15 different updated packages, run the install script
> again to get the stuff to my system, then have to type the path or filename
> on a command line to get the program to run (i'm not even going to go into
> what it would take to get the icon to be added to the menu system). Me? I
> love it. I'd do that in a heartbeat for the power and responsiveness of
> the Linux Operating system. To those of us who have used computers for
> ages and like digging into the command line and the operating system, linux
> is great...to those NORMAL users who only care about getting their work
> done, linux is simply not efficient or simple enough.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ryan Reddell [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Saturday, January 23, 1999 3:20 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Questions about linux ..
>
> I've been hearing good thibgs about it..... but what software does it
> support?? The 2 main programs I use are Front Page 98 and MS Office
> 99.. Is it worth it??? Where can you get it???
>
> Thanks
>
> Ryan
>
>
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