Desktop Linux (fwd)

Travis Roy travis at scootz.net
Thu Feb 26 15:47:35 EST 2004


> Anyway I think you guys all made your points (better than I did),
> and I'm dropping out of this, now clearly non-profitable thread.

These threads can be profitable?! :)
 
> I think it got pulled quite far afield from Maddog's original query.
and
> that's too bad.  He was looking at something pretty important. (as
usual)

Well, it did and it didn't. Basically he said that this year was the
year for Linux on the desktop. We all brought up views of why we thought
it was or wasn't and what could be different to make it better on the
desktop.

I'll stop posting in this thread as well after I finish up a little
statement about my stance :)

Here it is in a nutshell. What I think will make linux work on the
desktop and what is required would be that a user can buy a computer
from a store or mail order place and get it pre-installed. It needs to
include everything a basic user would want/need, and have a nice
interface for upgrades/installs. It -will- require some type of auto
update for system/security upgrades that does not require user
intervention. We all know that people don't patch their systems even
when told to multiple times. We also know that if a commercial or
semi-commercial general user worm/virus gets out there it's going to be
bad news for the linux community. There also needs to be either
pre-installed Wine or something similar until there is a fair number of
off the shelf linux games.

The other thing is that when telling people about linux and showing them
software that they can get be sure not to say things like "you don't
need Quicken, you can get GNUCash for free" (or photoshop vs. the gimp,
or whatever). Because that puts in their mind that GNUCash = Quicken.
Bring it up as something that they can do their finances with and don't
even bring up Quicken. Or say that it does SOME of the same things.

And most of all, keep in mind that linux (just like windows or OSX) is
not for everybody and that they might be happy with what they're using,
or it might actually be the best solution for what they need to do. 

For me personally I run Linux as a server, I support Linux via owning a
TiVo. I'm going to build a home media server that will run linux and
I'll have a little mini-itx net booted computer hooked up to my TV to
watch/listen to my media files.. For my wife she uses a Powerbook with
OSX because that's what her school uses (she's a teacher). Cost of
software is minimal because of her discount (Keynote for $14, OSX 1.2
and 1.3 for free, all legit copies from Apple). I use OSX because I got
a G3 for cheap and it suits my needs. I actually do a remote X session
for some linux programs from my server.

My brother has two kids, his wife is a paralegal at a lawfirm that is
all MS software. The kids use MS software at school, and all their games
run on windows, for that, that's the right choice for what they need.

With all this said :) My Dad recently got an x-box and most of the games
he plays he plays on that now, so it might be time to see how things go
with them and put Fedora on their Dell and see how it goes. When that
time comes I'll be sure to keep the list posted :)




More information about the gnhlug-discuss mailing list