> What I want is a system that has a web browser that can display the > streaming videos included on many websites, including the different news > services like Reuters, ABC, CNN, etc at Yahoo.com and the trailers at > film.com. Basically the same functionality that a Windoes user would have > on the same websites. As everyone keeps saying, you do have that.. MPlayer and the w32codecs from Packman combined with Firefox (and with a little work, also Opera and Konqueror). It works first time every time on every single SUSE 10.2 install I've put together... not just on my specific hardware, but on multiple systems on completely different hardware. Even on remote machines half way around the world where I've walked a family member through installing those apps from Packman... and it worked for them too.
Yep.
The trailers, news feeds, YouTube etc. all work fine in Linux IF you add in the latest Flash form Adobe, and add in MPlayer, w32codecs, and mplayerplugin from Packman.
Yes
> In my opinion, this is critically important to get a Windows user to want > to swap to Linux. After all, why make the change if you lose features? What features are being lost? I'm gaining features.. not loosing (with the exception of a much smaller choice of expensive commercial games which may or may not be a bad thing)
Agree, there is NO way switching from XP to openSUSE 10.2 is a net loss of features. I have Windows in vmware workstation. It is surprising how rarely I have to boot it; usually only to test domain policy stuff.
> that breaks the bank is full-featured web browsing. If that can be made to > work correctly then there is really no need whatsoever to retain Windows, > other than maybe a virtual machine for the reasons mentioned above. I don't see where this is an issue. Seriously... At least since I've installed 10.2, I DO have full featured Web Browsing.
Same here.
There are some sites that I go to that have highly annoying advertising animations and overlays that do not work, and in some cases become totally unreadable due to bad placement of the ads and how Firefox, Opera in Linux etc handle the layers. But.. I don't really consider that a loss of functionality, or a loss of features.
You'll never find a box that will display EVERY website; some are just too screwed up.
> My goal is to be able to sever the Windows umbilical that so many people > are attached to. I want the stereotypical blonde to be able to turn on the > computer and run it just as easily as she does Windows.
Maybe that is a dumb goal. It sounds more like a mission than a goal. My experience: if you are focused on Windows, and that is the axis of your thoughts about IT/technology/user-experience, you will never succeed or be happy with Linux. Buy a Vista box, save yourself the grief. I've been in IT, and running Linux, since 1992. That has always proven to be true.
I cannot do that with the tools I have now.
My wife, who is not a dumb blonde but a hot brunette, has been using Linux for *years* on her laptop to do entirely ordinary things. The guy who lives in the upstairs apartment uses Linux for entirely ordinary things. Neither are IT people by any stretch of the imagination. They are accustomed to how things look/feel/respond and do just fine [without hand holding by me]; and no, neither uses the command line. :) Neither do they post to lists or forums, which is why the failure rate for Linux desktops seems dramatically higher (here especially) then it actually is. --- Adam Tauno Williams Consultant - http://www.whitemiceconsulting.com Developer - http://www.opengroupware.org/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
