Last week I had a chance to chat with a couple of my attorney friends
who were kind enough to try Linux. Their comments were unanimous: No one
likes Linux. I asked their reasons; their major complaints include:
1.
OpenOffice.org is too slow, way too slow;
2.
Linux file manager sucks;
3.
Powering off the machine is a big pain, no one could remember the
“shutdown [EMAIL PROTECTED] command;
Etc., etc.
On the surface, this may sound really discouraging, but, in reality, I
am beginning to see light at the end of the Linux desktop tunnel. Their
biggest problem was, they were using older versions of Linux that—now I
have to admit--were not ready for desktops (Red Hat 8 and Mandrake 8.2).
Who could tolerate a wordprocessor that takes, on some machines, more
than a couple of minutes to load (OpenOffice 1.0.x and StarOffice 6.x)?
Fedora Core Test 3 (Red Hat 10 beta 3) still has some glitches but it
now includes OpenOffice 1.1, which loads (on my AthlonXP 2000 machine)
in less than 10 seconds. Lack of a competent office suite is THE largest
stumbling block preventing anyone to consider Linux desktops. OO.o 1.1
has just opened the Linux desktops gate and now everyone can begin to be
admitted.
On the file manager and other stuff, the key lesson I have learned is
that, never EVER give someone, no matter how computer literate s/he may
claim to be, a LinuxDistro ISO (or a set of LinuxDistro ISOs) and leave
that person alone. Giving someone a Linux CD is the best way to lose
friends and trash your credibility. I am sure things will change after a
couple more iterations, but have you ever handed someone a Windows CD
and expect everything will just fit into the right place?
I will touch the subject of Linux desktop customization (e. g., the
“poweroff” icon that I mentioned in a previous post, plus customizations
in Konqueror, etc.) later. But the future of Linux desktops should be
very bright. wayne
