On Friday 16 March 2007 07:31, Adam Williams wrote:> Summary of snipped part: If the system is set up by someone who knows the Unix/Linux environment, the average Joe or Josephine will never miss Windows.
> > > 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. Well, I partly agree. See below. > > 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/ Altho someone pointed me to LinuxXP a few days ago, there are a bunch of programs that will not run under WINE, and really require some kind of Windows. One of them is AutoCAD-LT, and another is the full-up pro version, AutoCAD. I don't think (but don't know) that Pro-E--a sort of competitor to AutoCAD that does 3-D drawings natively, runs on Linux, and Agilent-EEsof's RF simulators, AFAIK, do not run on Linux, altho there was a Unix version of an earlier incarnation of this some 15 or so years ago. (I Googled their website, and could not tell.) Most of these are very high-end programs, except A/C-LT, costing thousands of dollars, but if the goal is to put Linux on every desk possible, it will not happen in some engineering and architectural firms that need the capabilities above. And these firms, of course, are where the money is, where the prestige is, and where a significant reliance on Linux would be instantly recognized by the average Joe and Jo. When Linux is a real competitor to M/S, I believe that some or all of these kinds of programs will be available. I had written of competition a few days ago, and someone wrote back that Linux has already sold more O/S's than Mac's OS-X. But he admitted, that's for servers; OS-X is on desktops in video and advt. labs world-over. Even if a niche opportunity occurs, as with Mac, it would certainly help the Linux community to have some recognition among the average Jos and Joes, most especially in the commercial world _outside of_ IT. What can be done? Here's the Catch 22. As long as Linux is confined to the IT world, Agilent will not bother to port the Agilent programs to Linux, and as long as nobody does, Linux stays in the IT world, and for goofballs like me who are stubbornly trying to get aboard. It is obvious to me, having been there on the receiving end, that IT departments want all computers in the shop to be running the same system, and (ideally) all the same software. (This is not too likely in an engineering environment, but that would be the ideal, and is of course true in secretarial offices.) That same sytem, in almost all places, is Windows. Well, I don't have the answer--this is more of a think-piece than a solution, but I thought I'd put it out there for thought, to those more insightful than me. --doug -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
