[Wylug-discuss] Linux on the desktop (was [Wylug-help] Fw: Re: Installing a speedtouch modem)

[Nik Jewell]

Thanks for that breath of fresh air Dave - I think I'll take it as my
opporunity to sound off on the same issue (and I've moved it to
wylug-discuss), though I doubt you'll agree with what I say.

[I apologise if anybody else has replied in the meantime - we are having
email woes at the Uni.]

I'm a reasonably experienced Linux user and I agree with everything you
say, so much so that I've gone back to using XP for 'desktop' activity
(shock, horror).  I now find that my working environment wherever I go
needs two computers - one running Linux for system administration and
development work, and one running XP for any activity for which I want
to use a GUI.

I got religious and tried for years to switch all my activities to
Linux, but I've given in - Open Office is a ghastly application, DIA is
a poor relation to Visio, I cannot be bothered to wade through the
GIMP's interface when I can fire up Photoshop, Macromedia have never
ported my all time favourite HTML editor, Homesite, to Linux, though at
least XML Spy is now purported to work under Wine.  We were once
interested in Open Office because of its XML file format, but now that
Altova have made Authentic a free application, I am relieved to not have
to point my users at Open Office.  X for me, as it is for most
experienced users I suspect, a means for running multiple xterms.

Linux, however, is the dogs for pretty much everything else I do, though
I have become increasingly tired of patching it, and am currently
migrating all my servers to OpenBSD (another shock, horror!)

Anyway, rant over, my message is that I think we in the Linux community
are only doing ourselves a disservice if we continue to sell Linux as a
desktop solution *at this stage* in its development.  Using that desktop
is like wading through treacle.  Some tasks are just better suited to
GUIs and Linux is not currently the GUI of choice whatever some would
like to think.

I expect to get burnt for my views, but remember that I hate M$'s
anti-competitive practices just as much as the next guy, and don't tell
me about all the alternatives to my way of working - I've tried them.  I
just need to get my job done, and I look forward to the day when I can
do what I need to do as efficiently on Linux.

Losin' my religion

Nik

PS The particular area of XP that really pains me is having to invest in
extra software to protect me from all the malicious mobile code that it
is so susceptible to, so I intend to move to OS X when I can afford a
nice shiny powerbook or G5.  Maybe I'll only need one computer then :-)


Dave Fisher wrote:

>On Thu, Nov 13, 2003 at 08:49:46PM +0000, Steve King wrote:
>
>
>>Rik did a good talk on this earlier on in the year
>>
>>http://www.wylug.org.uk/talks/2003/03/speedtouch.html
>>
>>I don't know about SUSE, but I believe that the stingray usb modem "just
>>works" in recent mandrakes. I've always used it in conjunction with a
>>smoothwall box where it does "just work".
>>
>>However, I'd suggest you dump the usb thing and get an adsl router!
>>(says he, who is now using his old usb stingray cos his adsl router
>>broke after a day's use!)
>>
>>
>
>I looks like Rik's talk would be a bit too technical for Steve E.
>
>Like everyone else, I'd strongly advise Windows escapees against even
>attempting to configure an ADSL modem that doesn't just work
>automatically with a newbie friendly distro.
>
>Even the more expensive routers are cheap by comparison with the time
>and knowledge required to overcome the problems with tricky modems
>(blame the hardare manufacturers, not Linux).
>
>I would also warn most Windows-to-Linux converts that they should not
>underestimate the extent to which Microsoft have shielded them from the
>complexities, choices and the conflicts of interest that real computing
>involves.
>
>Many things 'just work' in Windows, because Microsoft has the power to
>get away with running rough-shod over hardware and software
>compatibility standards ... and partly,  because they make it virtually
>impossible for Windows users to interact with packages and devices which
>are not Microsoft approved.
>
>In short, if you expect to be able to pick up Linux quickly, and
>immediately work in the way that you are used to on WinXP, you might has
>well give up now and save yourself the time, money and grief.
>
>With the possible exception of OS X, Unix/Linux is an extremely broad
>and literate computing environment.  It takes a considerable amount of
>study to become fluent in most of its vocabularies, grammar and
>literature.
>
>It is possible to work in the Windows style on Linux, but most
>experienced Linux users find it hard to advise newbies on such matters,
>because they rarely use the Windows-style GUI applications provided by
>Gnome and KDE. These consitute only one tiny part of a much larger Linux
>landscape, and the best people to guide you through them are often
>slightly more advanced newbies, i.e. people who have already wasted a
>lot of their own time trying out the range of GUI tools that are
>available in a particular field.
>
>We are still some way off the time when any Linux destop can provide the
>singular, consistent, narrow and safe environment that Microsoft does.
>If you really want to learn Linux, you have to commit yourself to years
>of learning and tinkering.
>
>Dave
>
>
>
>
>
>
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