When in doubt do some research into the best apps for your needs, on any
OS, and then clone them or help a programmer you might know (Linux lists
are good places to find them) to clone them for you as opensource. Once
you got the basics of what you need it is much easier to develop
specialized functions and features you might need added. I'm certainly not
above taking ideas from other programs and then making my own
version. Can't be that horrible a sin, afterall look at all the people who
invented mindsweeper and tetris. ;>
Winmodems are easy enough to overcome.. just buy a cheap external modem
and your set. I for one switched to highspeed access for both work and
home and am very pleased with it. My biggest complaint is in things like
digital cameras. I recently had the need to buy a few web cams to monitor
a server room with and finding some that were Linux compatible was a
pain. The process was to find one that was compatible and then search
until I found someplace that had it, do a few price/feature comparisons,
verify it is the same thing even though it has the same name, and finally
buy one. It was very frustrating that the majority of supported models
were slightly outdated and so harder to find online. I ended up buying a
couple CUSeeMe (or whatever that is) cams for about $40 each and they
serve my need.
*^*^*^*
Have the courage to take your own thoughts seriously, for they will shape
you. -- Albert Einstein
On Fri, 1 Dec 2000, Benjamin Sher wrote:
> Dear friends:
>
> I would like to add my two cents' worth to this matter of applications.
>
> [Preliminary Note: I love Linux and especially Mandrake and have been
> supporting it by purchasing its official versions since version LM 6.1
> and continue to do so (in spite of Macmillain's recent LM 72/Wallmart
> fiasco, which I consider a serious setback to Mandrake's professional
> standards and especially reputation among newbies for whom it is meant.
> Let's hope Mandrake/Macmillain never pass off a Beta as an official
> version again.]
>
> Now to the subject at hand:
>
> Two years ago I abandoned Windows 95 for good and installed Linux Red
> Hat 5.2. That was followed by Linux-Mandrake, which I have been using
> ever since. I was originally hoping to never again so much as look at
> Windows, and for the first year I was happily and blissfully free of it.
>
> But then, for professional reasons (broadcasts on Windows Media Player
> and Quicktime), I had no choice but to reinstall Win98 SE as part of a
> dual-boot system. I added an extra hard drive for Windows and this makes
> it much easier to keep the two OS's separate (using Lilo to switch back
> and forth -- thank God for Lilo!). I thought that would pretty much do
> it. But then a funny thing happened: we decided to invest a little money
> in the stock market, and to help my wife with her research, I decided to
> look for stock market analysis and research software programs. Well, I
> found nothing on Linux, so I decided to to go ZDNET's software library
> and see what Windows had to offer. I was astounded to discovere HUNDREDS
> upon HUNDREDS of financial programs of every sort, dozens upon dozens
> specializing in one aspect of stock market trading or another. I was
> overwhelmed, tried out a dozen or so and settle on what I thought were
> the best: SpeedResearch Browser (SRBrowse), EZStock and StockAnalyzer.
> Two of the three are also free (as in beer) and the third costs only
> $35.
>
> So, now I am more attached to Windows than ever and I don't like it one
> bit. Win98 SE may be better and more stable than Win95 (which was a
> nightmare) but, still, it's the same old unreliable, unstable Windows
> that crashes at the most inopportune times, crashing the OS along with
> any "misbehaving" application. Furthermore, Windows's multitasking is a
> joke. It can barely handle two or three applications at a time before
> crashing. I use it only when I have to, but, as you can see, I need it
> more and more.
>
> Bottom line: Until Linux, which is rich in thousands of applications,
> has an equally vast and varied collection of CONSUMER applications of
> every sort, it won't quite be ready for prime time. And this won't
> happen till Linux is much more popular. The old chicken and egg problem:
> no consumer applications until there is a consumer market for Linux big
> enough to justify it, and no consumer market until there are
> applications.
>
> Meanwhile, Linux as an OS, with its great and beautiful and configurable
> new graphical KDE and Gnome desktops (and even xfce and other
> light-weight desktop for those with low-memory) and its thousands upon
> thousands of applications (some for consumers, mostly for professionals)
> and its reliablity, strength, superb multi-tasking, kernel 2.4 (around
> the corner), wealth of browsers (yes -- Netscape 4.75, Netscape 6 --
> when it is fully operational, KDE's Konqueror and, most importantly,
> Mozilla (now at M18 and moving ahead fast), is catching up with (has
> already caught up with?) Windows and Apple. I would guess that the most
> important of all browsers is Mozilla because, when it is completed this
> spring, it will spawn dozens of branded versions, which, while building
> on Mozilla, will add special features of their own. In other words,
> Internet Explorer will find itself faced not with one derivated, namely,
> Netscape 6 but with dozens of equally powerful (and superior) browsers
> all built on the open-source Mozilla. This will be good for the
> consumers acorss all platforms and a last laugh at Microsoft with a
> vengeance. There is already one major spinoff of Mozilla called Beonex.
> It's still not quite ready, either. But by the end of the coming year,
> IE will find itself outgunned on every front by the Mozilla browsers
> (under a variety of brands) which they themselves caused by forcing
> Netscape to go open-source. It will be sweet revenge on Microsoft.
>
> Benjamin
>
> P. S.
>
> There are other critical problems as well such as winmodems (I use ADSL
> along with a USRobotics 56k as a backup, but, apparently, most PC's now
> come up with winmodems. Fortunately, many people are now switching to
> broadband (Cable, ADSL, Wireless) and this will eventually solve this
> problem. But, I imagine that the problems having to with winmodems (only
> minimally solved by Linmodems, according to my readings) will remain a
> major hurdle. Most ordinary people don't like to have to open up the
> innards of their PC, remove their winmodem and install a regular
> faxmodem, nor do they like paying someone to have it done (unless it
> comes with their system in the first place). Whichever distro can solve
> this problem will win a major battle for Linux among consumers.
>
