Sorry to top post, but I rather suspect that plenty of authors use other open source programs, like LibreOffice. The truth is that, for most writing that would produce best-sellers, you could just as soon use Notepad, or a typewriter. The sophisticated features available with a program like LyX, or SWP, won't help that much.
That said, one wonders what axe this person has to grind. Richard On 06/09/2013 10:36 AM, Steve Litt wrote:
Hi all, On one of my writers' mailing list, after I said I used LyX, a guy who really does have what once was a best-seller wrote this: ======================================= "As for Lyx, you need to know that, with very few exceptions none of which immediately come to mind open source programs have great appeal for people who want to tinker with computers but almost none for those who actually want to do something. Such apps tend to have butt ugly interfaces and stupid names like Lyx and Snort and Gimp and Phlegm. Last I saw, Lyx wasn't even WYSIWYG, for crying out loud. Forewarned is forewarned. Or something like that." ======================================= I already wrote back mocking his position and pointing out that if Open Source got his undies that tight in a bundle, maybe there's something interesting there, maybe everyone should try LyX, after all, it's free, and gave the www.lyx.org URL. But I can tell you this guy is going to come back and say he's a great and mighty best selling author, ask how many books have I sold. While books provide a part of my income, I have no best sellers, either now or in the past. So, when he comes back and asks that, it would be *wonderful* to give the writer's list one or more best seller books (I think something with an Amazon rank of less than 5000 would do it), to refute his statement, by counterexample. I'll say one more thing. A lot of writers seem to be proud of their technophobia, and say mean and stupid stuff about LyX and other Open Source. On their behalf, please allow *this* writer to apologize. And as always, keep up the good work producing a great book writing software (and perhaps now a web authoring software). Thanks, SteveT Steve Litt * http://www.troubleshooters.com/ Troubleshooting Training * Human Performance
