begin quoting Tracy R Reed as of Mon, May 21, 2007 at 09:54:49AM -0700: > John H. Robinson, IV wrote: > >I disagree with that. There is no need why working hardware has to be > >abandonded. > > You are correct that it should not be abandoned. But old hardware > probably shouldn't be used by the casual user. They will not want the > hassle. And then they will complain about how difficult Linux is to use.
If that's the concern, they should also avoid new hardware, too. There's a sweet spot in there somewhere. Not too new, not too old, not too different from everyone else... :( [snip] > We call it an "office" suite because that is the convention but everyone > uses them at home too. Word processing, spreadsheet, etc. We call it an "office suite" because that's how M$ marketed the whole kit-and-kaboodle, I thought. Before then, they were just applications. You had a spreadsheet application. You had a word processor application. You had a page layout application. You had a database application. You had a database query and report generator application. . . > >There are lighterweight ``office''-style programs for UNIX than Open > >Office. They may not be Microsoft Office compatible, but they get the > >job done if that is what you need. > > If they aren't MS Office compatible it seems unlikely that the casual > user will be happy with it. On the contrary... they will likely be just fine with it, until they start interacting with M$Office users, who do things like embed pictures into powerpoint presentations (so you need mspowerpoint to look at a picture) and write up simple lists in M$Word (so you need msword to see that you're supposed to bring the chips and dip to the party). > Most of the documents that get written these > days seem to be written for the purpose of sharing with someone else. > It's been a long time since I actually printed a document to put in the > mail to someone. Maybe a student would use it to hand in an assignment. We're talking casual user. A printer is a necessity. When you get to someone who does everything online, you're drifting away from "casual user", as you now are starting to look at broadband users. They're a step up from casual, at least in my book. When they start to make email and web browsing the primary activies, then they often end up with broadband, but again, little need for M$ formats. A PDF reader, a Flash player, etc. become essentials. The only folks who seem to be stuck on M$ tools and formats are those who use 'em at work, and thus, also at home. Since there's a LOT of people using M$ tools and formats at work, there are consequently a lot of people also using 'em at home... but if you're paid to use a toolset, I don't think you can qualify as a "casual" user. > >The nice thing about Debian is that most of them are already included, > >even if they are not installed by default. > > I think I'll download some Debian and Ubuntu ISO's and give them each a > try in qemu. I've been impressed with Debian's Net install. I just wished I didn't have to be root to install everything, but that's presumably an artifact of the UNIX permission scheme. RH and SuSE are shinier, but that means that when they fall over, they make a bigger bang. -- I want real system ACLs, not filesystem ACLs. Stewart Stremler -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
