[ale] Greetings and introduction

[William Fragakis]

Funny thing is that we have a school full of kids who have Linux
desktops more useful than WinXP.

We actually have a class where a parent donated a brand new Dell media
PC and the blue screen is on more often than not. Beside are 6 Linux
terminals (K12LTSP running GNOME on FC4) and a Mac with OS 9. Guess
which box I've spent the most time on trying to maintain?

The kids hammer the PCs all day - and it's not to use Vi.

At home, my daughter plays Runescape, I listen to radioparadise.com and
we all get our email on Linux.

Your first point is an excellent one. But if you are comparing the
latest incarnations of GNOME and KDE with Win 3.1... We aren't Vi'ing.
We are Quanta'ing, Bluefishing, GIMP'ing, etc. Things have moved along a
bit.

And.. Weather Bug? Many of us have spent countless hours getting that
OFF machines. And, Quicktime displays just fine thank you -even on a
Linux thin client. Linux does have certain issues but having used Macs
for years, they did/do to. The point is that the overall experience was
so superior that it was worth it. As always, YMMV.

I'm not trying to flame but I do have to scratch my head and wonder why
you'd bring up Vi and Win 3.1.

Regaards,
William
On Tue, 2006-04-18 at 20:59 -0700, Jim Popovitch wrote:
> --- James Sumners <james.sumners at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I don't want to scare you off, but I have to make this observation. It
> > sounds to me like you are looking for some magic distribution that is
> > going to "let" you do everything you did in Windows exactly the same
> > as you did with that operating system. I have seen this sort of
> > mentality among my personal friends and watched it fail. When people
> > talk about the "Linux desktop" they are, most typically, not talking
> > about the same sort of "desktop" most Windows geeks are familiar with;
> > that being a business system that excels at playing games and various
> > other "home" applications (e.g. iPod management). No, the "Linux
> > desktop" is one where work is accomplished. Casual surfing, writing
> > papers, developing programs, etc. There are a select few big name
> > games that have Linux ports (UT2004, Quake 3/4, Doom 3, etc.), but for
> > the most part it isn't a gaming platform like Windows.
> 
> I don't want to start a flame war.... but not all work is simply vi'ing 
> files and writing papers.  Musicians need *advanced* software.  Application
> developers need *advanced* (cough, non-java, cough) GUI design, debugging, 
> and testing tools.  Finally, the same people that work all day on word
> processing applications appreciate things like Weather Bug, CNN Pipeline, Cisco
> IP Communicator, GPRS via Bluetooth, Skype w/ Bluetooth headsets, iPass, Google
> Earth, Delta Flight Schedules, QuickTime videos, WPA2, etc.  Oh, and those same
> people appreciate the way Microsoft Windows File Association really works with
> installed applications, whereas with most Linux distros it is just a *complete*
> pain to maintain even with lots of finger crossing.  What Linux lacks is
> massive application vendor support... mostly due to all the different ways that
> things are done between Linux desktops and distros.
> 
> Don't get me wrong, I love Linux.  I just still (in 2006) haven't seen a Linux
> desktop that even comes close to the flexibility of what Microsoft produces. 
> You can make all sorts of claims about your environment being different and how
> you don't need application xyz, but in the end the lack of massive worldwide
> adoption speaks for itself.  I work for IBM, arguable one of the worlds leading
> Linux supporters.  Yet IBM's own internal corporate Linux desktop distro (based
> on RHE4) is still a long way from being what Windows 3.1.1 was.  Sorry if I
> strike a nerve, I am just giving you opinions based on years of professional
> *developement* and "on the road, in the field" experience with *both* OS'es.
> 
> If I need to setup a server I use Linux.  If I need a usable desktop I use XP. 
> I would love to go back to a Linux Desktop, but not if it still takes away
> nights and weekends to make useable.
> 
> -Jim P.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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