[ale] Best Desktop Env or Distro for Windows users?

[Bao C. Ha]

On Wed, Aug 21, 2002 at 11:52:48AM -0400, F. Grant Robertson wrote:

Hi Grant,

The problem is choices.  KDE uses qt while Gnome uses its own.  I
don't think there should be a problem in drag and drop since I
believe that capability is available in qt.  

I also don't believe in the "universally transparent" like OLE or
Active-X.  I have so much contamination of my desktop due to
Active-X.  I have not encountered the same problem with Java
Applets.  Microsoft has sacrificed security to bring the "false
sense of security" of ease of use to the desktop.  

Microsoft does have its own compatibility problems, although most
of them are suffered by the development community.  At least I
have suffered when Active-X was going through 2.5, 2.6 and now 
2.7.  Just don't blame those poor guys who are trying to make a
living writing Windows software.

Bao

> You know, on this subject..  Why now, like 6 years after I first installed
> RedHat 4, and many more years since the birth of Xfree, the kernel and all
> this other fabulous stuff was created.. Why do we still not have something
> universaly transparent like DDE or OLE in X that can traverse window
> managers?  K has it's thing, gnome has it's thing...  why is there not
> something at a lower level that handles this?  I can use the same font
> server across desktops, and even across variants of X but, I can't drag and
> drop..  Couldn't GPM handle this somehow?  X? Some other little doohickey
> like Xfs?
> 
> I'd love to hear some programmers that have more experience with the deeper
> workings of unix, X and window management than I do give a good explination
> of why not, and what would be involved to actually make this happen.
> 
> -G
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill Sirinek [mailto:sirinek at enteract.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 11:30 AM
> To: Charles Marcus
> Cc: Ale (E-mail)
> Subject: RE: [ale] Best Desktop Env or Distro for Windows users?
> 
> 
> 
> Charles,
> 
> You have valid points about productivity and eye candy and all that, but
> one thing I didnt touch on with KDE and its application suite is that
> basic things like drag and drop and cut and paste work like they
> should. If you use KDE & Koffice, and other KDE apps, this all works
> pretty seamlessly. I'd loev to see if that were the case if one were to,
> say, run IceWM/Mozilla/StarOffice/Evolution. Can I drag URLs from Mozilla
> to Evolution? Can I drag my staroffice document onto the IceWM
> desktop? Can I use Mozilla's copy command to paste something into
> StarOffice (and I mean using the menu copy/paste, not the X11 2nd/1st
> button copy/paste)
> 
> I agree it doesnt really matter what the users think about the choice the
> IT management made, but if you are going to switch from Windows to Linux
> and you dont want productivity to take a huge hit, you want to give them
> something that will work almost exactly like Windows.
> 
> Bill
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, 21 Aug 2002, Charles Marcus wrote:
> 
> > > From: Irv Mullins [mailto:irvm at ellijay.com]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 9:43 AM
> > >
> > > On Wednesday 21 August 2002 08:37 am, you wrote:
> > >
> > >> Unless people are running Pentium 150s or something
> > >> I'd recommend a real desktop ENVIRONMENT like GNOME
> > >> or (my preference) KDE instead of just a window
> > >> manager like IceWM. These are windows users who are
> > >> going to want things like a control panel, a menu
> > >> panel, icons on the desktop, things they are used to.
> >
> > > Agreed. Any of the 'lightweight' window managers are
> > > going to be an immediate and final turnoff for people
> > > who are used to Windows. They will refuse to use them,
> > > your cause is lost.
> >
> > Uh.  If the Company President, or Office Manager, or whover is in charge
> of
> > these decisions, mandates that this is the new corporate Desktop, the
> Users
> > will have no say-so about it.  They *can't* refuse to use it - all they
> can
> > do is complain amopngst themselves, and worst-case, quit and go work
> > somewhere else.
> >
> > Managements *only* concern should be that they have the tools they need to
> > do their job well.
> >
> > > You can use this as a selling point. Users will be
> > > impressed with their ability to customize things.
> > > The only other thing they will care about is that
> > > Linux may crash less often than Windows.  Anything
> > > else, no mater how real, will be unimportant.
> >
> > Who *cares* what the Users think, ultimately?
> >
> > No, I'm not really the cold-hearted bastard I may sound like, but really -
> > is Management providing these people computers so they can play with them,
> > or so they can do their work?  People used to get by with pen, paper and a
> > typewriter, so do *not* tell me they* have* to have KDE eye-candy to be
> able
> > to write a letter, send a fax, or create a Proposal, send email or browse
> > the web.
> >
> > Charles
> >
> >
> > ---
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> >
> >
> 
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-- 
Bao C. Ha                    voice: (310) 980-3805
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Primary Perpetrator of "Slackware Linux Unleashed"

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