Re: LinuxWorld Show...where's the beef?
Peter wrote:
There is a dearth of desktop app vendors, (I found only two,) but the tools for developing abound.
There are at least two good reasons for that.
<snip>
Second, and most importantly, almost all Linux desktop apps (OpenOffice.org, Mozilla, The GIMP, scribus) are free software. You can't expect companies to compete with these tools, many of which are first-rate by any standard.
I will be playing with my copy of Sun Office and report my thoughts, although I have no intention of doing a side by side comparison, unless someone pays me to do it.
I can guarantee that,
if you had looked in the community section of small booths, you would have seen the desktop stuff. I know that OpenOffice.org was there, for example.
I was referring to commercial applications. Free Software Foundation was there, too.
There were discussions about cross platform integration, fat vs. thin clients and security/ The emphasis was on enterprise applications. e.g. www.pgatour.com. I think it telling that those who were using laptops to take notes, were mostly using Word and in most of the presentations I saw, the speakers augmented with PowerPoint.
I wouldn't be so sure. OpenOffice.org can be mistaken for MS Office at a distance, especially Impress, the presentation application. I've been giving a few talks recently about OpenOffice.org, and I like to save the fact that the slide show isn't done in PowerPoint as a surprise for the end. Very few people realize the fact until I tell them.
I thought that might be the case, but when I mentioned to to some of them they hedged the question with an embarrassed grin. Body language speaks more volumes than words.
If you get an honest guy talking off the record, you will have an admission that Linux still isn't ready for prime time.
"Isn't ready for prime time" is a semantically slippery phrase, and we could quibble over it endlessly.
Yep! so let's not on line.
However, speaking on the record (and I hope you'll think me honest), routine office procedures can easily be done on Linux these days.
A lot of it can be. I know a few guys who are running their law offices on Linux.
There are a few specialty items that are missing, but the basic functionality has been there for a couple of years now, and it's getting better all the time.
Agreed. But it's the missing "specialty items" such as: a smaller list of drivers for printers; wireless support; speech to text applications; and accounting and billing packages. One of the things I intend to evaluate is macro functionality and the ability to automate document production.
The main things keeping people from making the switch are fear of change, inertia, and lack of knowledge.
See above.
I also see the lack of ready availability of support. Yes, I know about the mailing lists and groups, but if a company has a business critical problem, it needs an accurate solution two hours before the problem developed. There is also a tendency to overstate. e.g. RedHat has presented its version of SeLinux as a product. Yet, SeLinux is not a finished product, but merely a fine prototype from which a product can be developed.
Tech writing tie in. I think that writing documentation for Linux, especially some of the free applications is a good way for beginning writers to get their foot in the door. Although the pay won't be there, the experience and self satisfaction gained would be very high. Instead of paying thousands of dollars for a technical writing course, why not devote the same time and effort to work on a real project. You will learn to deal with criticism similar to that which exists in the real world, instead of the watered down, polite suggestions from a paid instructor and in the end have something more realistic than a certificate to present on your resume.
--
Peter
Sisyphus had it easy
References:
LinuxWorld Show...where's the beef?: From: John Posada
Re: LinuxWorld Show...where's the beef?: From: Peter
Re: LinuxWorld Show...where's the beef?: From: Bruce Byfield
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