It is with some trepadation I enter the cloud of invective on the merits of current DTP software I have been reading. However I feel that several points worth mentioning have been overlooked. One: It is improper to assign motive to the teached in question with out at the least giving that person the chance to explain themselves. As I former teacher I have observed that teachers i)try to know their students and their situations, ii)plan curricula which are optimal to their students and their situation. What may be optimal in a particular situation may not be apparant to someone on the other side of the Internet.
Two: There are users of Scribus who, like myself, are not professional designers, do not work at designing or publication as their profession and do not have a professional designer's budget. I use Scribus as I formerly used an ancient copy of Pagemaker to produce Newsletters, membership directories and similar materials for a small (100 members) sailing organization. This is an activity for which I am not paid. Many users such as myself do not need every possible bleeding edge capability. Scribus meets my needs perfectly. It produces predictable high quality results. When I place something it stays exactly where I put it. Try that with any Microsoft product and you will end up screaming at the screen as the document reformats itself to rules you can not control. I look forward to Scribus 1.4.x even though I am sure it will contain features which I may never need but which I hope to learn how to use. Even if Scribus never displaces the commercial, feature dense DTP products it is a product of great value for those of us who have publications which we would like to produce as professionally as possible given that we are not publication professionals. For all those who have made Scribus possible and who continue to make it better--Thank you for all you do. -- David Bleil Catboat Sailor from Crofton, MD
