abe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Over here at my house Linux IS, right now, a better alternative to
> windows or Mac. I'm a full time student and I work part time. I cannot
> afford to buy programs for windows and I surely cannot afford a Mac that
> would perform on par with my PC (G4). I do everything with linux. I
> write papers for school, do my taxes, write letters, email, chat, rip &
> encode MP3's * .ogg's, Create images with the GIMP, play Quake3, UT and
> other games. Come on man what more do you want?
<Big Snip for sake of saving bandwith>
===================
Abe,
I agree with virtualy all of your objections to the original argument about
Linux NOT being ready for the desktop. I've been using Linux exclusively for
about 20 months now and my usage is similar to yours [well, at 48 years old, I
don't do much ripping of MP3's - though my teen age sons do, ON LINUX - and I
don't chat or play games beyond the occasional hand of Free Cell - though,
again, the sons.....]. But I would like to add one more point: Many linux
programs have become amazingly successful at handling M$ Office and other
progams files. I have students from both high school and colleges e-mail me
Word attachments (essays, papers and such) all the time. I open them in
StarOffice 5.x, edit in red, save as Word 97, e-mail the attachment back, w/o
a single problem! I was provided a copy of my HS budget by central office, 55
pages long, in Excel. StarOffice opened it without so much as a burp. I did
extensive editing, printed it out, saved it as both a SO.sdw file and as an
.xcl file (for central office purposes), again w/NO problem what-so-ever. My
point being that the argument that linux can not be used in a M$ world is also
bogus (or FUD). AFAIAC, linux is quite ready for MY desktop. [BTW, I use
Blackbox as my environment, but very much like the ability to utilize both KDE
and Gnome apps (e.g., kppp, kbiff, Gnome-cal, and others).
Just my $.02,
Mike
"Many loads of beer were brought. What disorder, whoring, fighting, killing
and dreadful idolatry took place there!"
Baltasar Rusow, Estonia, 16th century
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