running Linux at work with Windows apps

[pll at lanminds.com]

In a message dated: Fri, 08 Nov 2002 15:55:59 EST
Derek Martin said:

>At some point hitherto, pll at lanminds.com hath spake thusly:
>> If, OTOH, you're a life long MS user, and you get along reasonably 
>> well with MS environments, then I'd say that the CrossOver stuff has 
>> a few bugs which might drive you up the wall :)
>
>I'd say you have it backwards...  Unix users expect their stuff to
>work.  Microsoft users expect their software to be buggy and crash.
>They think computers are SUPPOSED to crash...
>

I understand what you're saying, but I think you mis-understand what 
I mean.

UNIX users are used to a higher level of pain when dealing with MS 
documents.  MS users aren't.  Though UNIX users are used to having 
their systems be much more reliable and stable, they are also used to 
having to jump through hoops to get at MS-based docs.  As such, they 
are far more likely to tolerate a minor bug in one or two apps when 
opening said document than an MS user is.

For example, if you're a life-long UNIX user, and you're forced to 
use Exchange/Outlook, you likely won't care that much that the normal 
mechanism to open the folder tree display in Outlook under Crossover Office
is broken and you're forced to use the View->Folder tree (or whatever 
it's called) menu selection.

On the other hand, if you were a life-long MS user, very used to the 
way Outlook behaved, this bug would drive you up a wall, and you'd 
quickly conclude that Linux isn't ready for the desktop.

Another example, as a UNIX user, you wouldn't care that the Outlook 
news reading capability were horribly broken under Crossover, since 
you already have 5 billion and 3 other news readers available to you.
An MS user wouldn't be capable of dealing with that properly.

>[Note the lack of a smiley...]

Hmmm, you must have lost yours.  Here, I have a spare :)

Oh, wait, that's not you.  Here, have this one instead =8-)
-- 

Seeya,
Paul
--
	It may look like I'm just sitting here doing nothing,
   but I'm really actively waiting for all my problems to go away.

	 If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right!