Depressing facts

[Tsuroerusu]

http://jfroushiii.blogspot.com/2006/09/ ... sktop.html

Seems a legit writing to me. It's facts like this that just depress the hell out of me and almost makes me think like "Oh well, let's go back and do that server stuff that we really do well, instead of wasting our time trying to walk an endless path".

I know the article says that Linux is good for home use, but we're not gonna get to home users unless we get to business users first.

What do you guys think? Should be just give up trying to do Linux on the desktop? Should the free software and open source community just stick to doing server stuff like Apache, MySQL and PHP, and just develop some cool desktop apps for Windows and Mac OS X?

[snarkout]

I think I agree with a lot of what they said. I could say the same for linux servers, though, too. Maintaining linux servers can be a major PITA for the same reason - most linux devs seem to give a rats ass about backwards compat and things break regularly for this reason. Same goes for windows - at least in the "things break regularly" dept.

As far as LOTD goes - I think is awesome, but also has some major drawbacks. I also firmly disagree that biz needs to come before home use, and I'm not sure where you get that idea. The major issue with linux is not that it isn't known, not that it rarely comes pre installed, and not that it isn't chock fulla goodness (though I have to admit, I rarely ever tell people they should run it because it really *is* a major pita, and there are a lot of problems with it). It's because people fear change.

I know how little most of you all like OS X, but IMO it is head and shoulders above windows in all respects. It is easy to use, it is well supported hardware-wise, and it really isn't missing any Killer App that I'm aware of (yes, there are niche apps missing, I'm sure). It is, however, not windows. People know windows. Most people have no idea there is any other way of life - they are aware that they can switch platforms, but when you explein "NO VIRUSES AND NO SPYWARE" to them, they think you're nuts, lying, or both(and yes, it isn't entirely true, but something that's 99% true is close enough).

So, linux could come as a pre-install option on every computer, w/o the MS tax even, and people would continue running windows.

[snarkout]

Oh, and it *does* piss me off that his most major gripe is linux not working well with a windows lock-in server app. It's bullshit to expect it to work well with exchange. IMO, the solution is not to make it work well with exchange, but to create a good exchange replacement.

I don't think anyone should have to pay for software at home.

This shit also really pisses me off. PLEASE PAY FOR SOME OF YOUR FUCKIGN SOFTWARE!!!!! Seriously. THe FOSS community at large has become a major swarm of leaches. I bitch about stuff in my blog, but I give money every month to some project. People do not like no pay for lots of abuse. Or at least people I know don't.

[Tsuroerusu]

I also firmly disagree that biz needs to come before home use, and I'm not sure where you get that idea.

I get this idea because a lot of stuff like games and apps like Photoshop or Quicken are not available for Linux, or there isn't a "just as good" replacement available, and when I say just as good" I mean in the eyes of the Photoshop users.

In my mind if Linux gets onto the business desktop, if more pro users adopt it and creates demand for Photoshop etc. etc. on Linux, it might come, and then if people like it better than what they have at home, and gets interested it taking it with them from the office to their home PC, that would create a demand for games on Linux as the kids wanna play their games, while mom or dad wanna do their office work and stuff.

[jsusanka]

How about Evolution for exchange? Have any of you out there actually tried to use Evolution tied to a 512mb exchange mailbox? It is painfully slow, and hangs all of the time. For some reason the calendar app always seems to get out of sync with the actual calendar on the exchange server. And it normally takes about 30 seconds to give me a preview of the message I am trying to look at. This is in no way a replacement for Outlook. Not that outlook is the best thing since sliced bread, but it works with my exchange environment like peanut butter with jelly.

OpenOffice writer took 45 seconds to start. MS word takes like 3 on a machine with similar hardware. Open really reminds me of MS office 97. Not just in feature set but in quality and speed. Has anyone tried to make a document print in landscape? Why does this take like 10 steps in Writer? Don't believe me here is a clip from help:

I have issues with these problems - I use evolution with exchange at the company I work for and my mailbox is about 380 meg - I have had problems in the past but ever since suse 10.1 and ubuntu dapper I have had NO problems.

as far as office goes - ya well all I got to say is I got an update for office the other day on my "coporate pc" at work and my machine had to boot twice. WTF - if that is the cost of offcie being fast then I don't want it. why should you have to reboot because of a word processing update.

as far as the other complaint about landscape look no further than the comment and I just verified this myself - so I think this guy is full of it. SAP has made a commitment to run on linux and not sure about the PBX vendor part - but linux can replace his whole PBX system if he needs it to.

here is the comment

You won't be able to make your point unless you learn how to use the tools.

The fastest way to change the page orientation in OpenOffice.org does not take 10 steps, but 2 (depending on how you break down steps):

1. Right click on document and select "Page..."
2. Select the "Page" tab and clicke the "Landscape" radio button.

suse and redhat would be way cheaper than the software assurance stuff from microsoft. not sure what they are paying but last I heard my company was paying out of the wazzoo.

I think this guy is full of it personally

[TankCatNinjaFish]

I couldn't care less what other businesses use. The sole goal of a business is to make money; the one main advantage of the MS platform is that everyone has it and everyone is familiar with it. If a business can't overcome and justify the cost of replacing the IT staff and retraining everyone who uses a computer, F/OSS hass no place.

The way I see it, if everyone is using F/OSS or any other technology for that matter, you have no competitive advantage.

[Judland]

What do you guys think? Should be just give up trying to do Linux on the desktop? Should the free software and open source community just stick to doing server stuff like Apache, MySQL and PHP, and just develop some cool desktop apps for Windows and Mac OS X?

I'm in the middle of my own social experiment with Linux, as I've posted on this forum before.

I'm converting home PCs of my co-workers over to Linux in the hopes that what they learn about Linux and what it can do for them at home will convince them to help me put pressure on our office's IT group for Linux and/or open source software in the office.

Aside from this, I've recently made a break-through with the office's IT group. I've been given "official" permission to partition my office PC's hard drive and install the next release of Mandriva (with the AIGLX desktop interface).

My hope is, as more people in the office see what I'm doing, they'll start putting in their own requests for dual boot systems, too.

So, I'm no where near giving up on the Linux desktop just yet. In fact, I'm just starting to gain momentum.

[Wally Balljacker]

On a personal level, I want nothing more than to see Linux succeed on the desktop, but it really doesn't matter to me if it has 3%, or 23% market share, I'll continue to use it until something better comes along.

[Gomer_X]

What do you guys think? Should be just give up trying to do Linux on the desktop? Should the free software and open source community just stick to doing server stuff like Apache, MySQL and PHP, and just develop some cool desktop apps for Windows and Mac OS X?

As I say every time this question comes up, Linux has been on my desktop for years. It works just fine. I don't feel compelled to make everyone else use the same software I do.

As far as the server, I've got Linux there too.

Let people use what they want. If Linux continues to grow in popularity, then great. It's been steadily growing for 15 years, so why should it stop? I don't see a problem.

[gorkon]

http://jfroushiii.blogspot.com/2006/09/ ... sktop.html

Seems a legit writing to me. It's facts like this that just depress the hell out of me and almost makes me think like "Oh well, let's go back and do that server stuff that we really do well, instead of wasting our time trying to walk an endless path".

I know the article says that Linux is good for home use, but we're not gonna get to home users unless we get to business users first.

What do you guys think? Should be just give up trying to do Linux on the desktop? Should the free software and open source community just stick to doing server stuff like Apache, MySQL and PHP, and just develop some cool desktop apps for Windows and Mac OS X?

We should never give this up because making it easier for regular users also tends to make it easier for us too. On the other hand, there's places Linux just isn't appropriate. When I have some users who can't understand basic English and have extreme trouble using a web browser. Some people don't even know you can SCROLL a web page....and I am NOT kidding! What is really funny is everyone claims that doing things on the web is easy....yeah it's easy if you have been using a computer for a while. Put yourself in the end user shoes every once in a while and you'll see what I mean.