I have not forgotten about the Demo Linux PC. The problem is, after I
got all the kinks out of the demo ShuttleX PC (SK41G), I realized it
does not have a parallel port. A USB-Parallel converter cost $59.99 at
CompUSA, and is not guaranteed to work. This pretty much kills the idea
of using the ShuttleX PC for office use. And I am back to square one.
Other than that, VIA's KM266 based system is indeed a great fit (cheap
and very good performance) for office use. It is to be noted that, RH9
won't install without some tweaks (no problem with RH8 and below), and
you need to modify XFree86config after installation in order to use the
Savage video driver (instead of the generic VESA driver). But, overall,
this is a very powerful and versatile chipset (and, again, cheap) and I
really like to see we can build some expertise on it.
There is another problem with the Demo Linux PC, and it underscores our
common observation why Linux desktops are a rarity in the business
environment. A Linux desktop is simply not stable or reliable enough.
In many aspects, it is better than Windows (probably somewhere between
Win98/WinXP-Home and Win2K/WinXP-Pro), but if you want to sell Linux
desktops, you do not have Microsoft to cover your 8th.
Most of the stability/reliability problems may be related to KDE. I
like KDE, but it has many bells and whistles that are not very useful in
business (this is OK), and yet it fails to address certain key
issues(this is not OK). I have not tried GNOME extensively, but it
appears that a good business desktop PC should be based on something
that is much simplier (so as to reduce the possibility of running into
bugs) windowing environment such as IceWM.
Office suite is another issue. In order for Linux desktop to be
comfortably adopted by business users, there must be provided a
portfolio of automation packages. I see there may be a great potential
to develop a cottage industry based on MySQL, OpenOffice.org, and Python
("MOP"), to provide services to business Linux desktop users.
