[Gllug] uk gov report on the state of oss

[Alain Williams]

On Wed, Dec 19, 2001 at 12:44:45PM +0100, Xander D Harkness wrote:
> A lot of people still talk about how Linux is not usable on the desktop.
> 
> People used dos and locoscript in the past, they used windows3.1 neither
> of which stopped secretaries typing letters.
> 
> The US Navy has found however that Powerpoint seriously degrades
> productivity (with people putting swishy graphics in instead of
> content).

Many people use swish to cover for poor content.

> Look at what Corel did to their Linux.  You would turn it on, get to a
> desktop without a password and start browsing or using any of the many
> office programs available.
> 
> RAM is now £45 for 512MB at dabs, now tell me star office is a problem.
> 
> I do not think that Corel Office is any less stable that M$ Office was
> two years ago, everybody still used it.
> 
> This is not me trying to preach to the converted, it is me totally
> misunderstanding why people consider Linux not ready for the desktop ;-)

A large part of the problem is

*	What I am used to is the ``right way of doing things''
	(ie I don't want to learn anything new, which is reasonable since learning
	has a cost; but what is the cost of staying with M$)

*	The Linux port of my favourite app hasn't been done yet - Linux won't
	be ready 'till the port has been done.
	(Often this is aversion to learning a new way)

*	File format issues - we all understand this, deliberate M$ lock in strategy.

-- 
Alain Williams

#include <std_disclaimer.h>

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