Time to queue up 2009's first 'Year of the Linux Desktop' joke

re: Time to queue up 2009's first 'Year of the Linux Desktop' joke

realtestman — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:13:52 GMT

Another robertsjoe trolling jem. Looks like he needs to wake up from his dream, again.

re: Time to queue up 2009's first 'Year of the Linux Desktop' joke

tayme — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:12:06 GMT

@sharky - "I don't know. It's just a WP software. Use what you want to and what you think will get the job done. If you believe Word is the best tool for the job, use it, otherwise, don't. There's no such thing as a good habit or a bad habit here. "

That is the very same thing that I have been saying about Operating Systems for a long time now! Thanks for agreeing!

--tayme

re: Time to queue up 2009's first 'Year of the Linux Desktop' joke

DRWAM — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:11:46 GMT

I am hooked on Office 2008 and Entourage is one of my favorite apps. My 3rd grade daughter can use Word and PowerPoint [from Office 2007 on XP] very well, as she uses it in school. Her younger sisters use Word to make a collage of pics, several times weekly. But this is OT.

Dipsh, check your PM for my car saga update.

re: Time to queue up 2009's first 'Year of the Linux Desktop' joke

boyreinvented — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:03:24 GMT

Word is horrible. It just isn't user friendly. I actually find MS Publisher way better for doing any word processing over Word because it is quicker and more flexible.

However, since moving to Mac, I use Pages and love it.

re: Time to queue up 2009's first 'Year of the Linux Desktop' joke

shark47 — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:51:26 GMT

"Everyone uses Word. I agree that this is a habit, and a bad habit, but it is nonetheless reality."

I don't know. It's just a WP software. Use what you want to and what you think will get the job done. If you believe Word is the best tool for the job, use it, otherwise, don't. There's no such thing as a good habit or a bad habit here.

I've used other WP software and just like I'm comfortable with Windows, I'm comfortable with Word too and use it quite frequently along with other Office software. I don't see the need to change my habits because some people on the internet don't approve of it.

re: Time to queue up 2009's first 'Year of the Linux Desktop' joke

chuckb84 — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:41:38 GMT

@Avro

"Actually Word isn't great with long and complex documents, okay for a letter but so are most WPs. For big items you are probably going to use .pdf or something like LaTex."

I've used TeX since 1983. I love TeX, and LaTex even more, but NOBODY outside a small scientific community uses TeX, or even LaTeX.

Everyone uses Word. I agree that this is a habit, and a bad habit, but it is nonetheless reality. As Office formats are opened up, hopefully competitors will get better at removing the need for Word, but the document interchange format is already settled and it is .doc. I don't like that at all, but I don't see it changing.

re: Time to queue up 2009's first 'Year of the Linux Desktop' joke

Dipsh t Admin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:21:52 GMT

"Stop being sheep."

I hate to bring up this old standby, but pot, meet kettle.

"Free is good, but a close price with support and compatibility is obviously better."

I think you've summed up the situation quite well.

re: Time to queue up 2009's first 'Year of the Linux Desktop' joke

Avro — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:18:16 GMT

@Sevenmack

"If you're talking about putting together a graphic design-heavy document for publication, then certainly PDF is best. That's also true with InDesign or Quark."

I'm in the Army and we use .pdf rather than Word for large documents, it's better and more portable and you certainly don't want someone to alter it!

Actually Word is bloated and buggy and even Paul has mentioned that the interface is so convoluted that the 10 most requested new features have been there for the last 3 versions. ;-)

MacFormat this month did a review of WPs for the Mac and 2nd from the bottom was Word and the only thing that saved it from bottom place was its compatibility with Word!!!

@Sevenmack

"It's all about Word"

No, simply put, it is not a very good Word Processor.

I do a lot of wordcrunching and unless someone requests Word I do it in Scrivener or Nisus Writer Pro and send it in .rtf or .pdf. Usually I get 3 requests a year for something in Word. Most professional writers do not use Word. It is a secretarial tool, not a writer's tool.

www.nytimes.com/.../06wwln-medium-t.html

stevenpoole.net/.../goodbye-cruel-word

re: Time to queue up 2009's first 'Year of the Linux Desktop' joke

DRWAM — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:09:36 GMT

Many looked at Linux because of savings and others for curiosity, while still others for rebellion. However, even before these horrific economic times, the price of a half decent Windows PC has dropped so low, that many would not bother to give up a safe support system and compatibility for the unknown. Lets face it, if you can buy a $400 Vista laptop and get support, why would you bother with Linux. Delete the crapware, or install a clean copy of Vista and life's good. It was too good a deal for even a Mac user! Free is good, but a close price with support and compatibility is obviously better.

re: Time to queue up 2009's first 'Year of the Linux Desktop' joke

aemarques — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:03:21 GMT

@Lindy (first post): yes, you're right - the problem lies with software, not the OS that's under it.

Contrary to popular belief, peopl don't buy operating systems; they buy solutions for their problems, and these solutions are, well, solved, with software.

The platform with the most/best software, wins.

re: Time to queue up 2009's first 'Year of the Linux Desktop' joke

lotsamystuff — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:55:53 GMT

What bothers me about this whole discussion (aside from horrific way "vijju" bastardized "chicanery" into "chickanery") is the notion that for Microsoft to "win", everyone else has to lose. Clearly, there's a place for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions, but the WinJihadists have to trounce out every cliché in the books to discredit them. Comments from Windows Warriors such as "mikegalos" ("I'd say a bigger problem is that Linux seems to be developed FOR a bunch of kids living in their parents' basement.") are just ridiculous.

Some of the criticism is valid. But the level of near-hatred for what is, at the end of the day, a computer operating system is something I just don't understand.

Story added

Jeqq — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:53:56 GMT

Your story was featured in Jeqq! Here is the link to vote it up and promote it: http://jeqq.com/node/86530

re: Time to queue up 2009's first 'Year of the Linux Desktop' joke

Sevenmack — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:47:24 GMT

"Actually Word isn't great with long and complex documents, okay for a letter but so are most WPs. For big items you are probably going to use .pdf or something like LaTex."

If you're talking about putting together a graphic design-heavy document for publication, then certainly PDF is best. That's also true with InDesign or Quark.

But when one is talking about complex documents for the office, most of those don't involve a lot of graphic design. They are complex because they include something like PowerPoint slides or a graph or chart. For internal corporate use, Word does trump most other WP program; the editing functions -- including being able to mark, approve and delete changes -- is especially robust for that kind of use. For my line of work, which involves a lot of complex editing among different players before publication, Google Docs and other WP software just doesn't get the job done. It's all about Word. Which is why Linux won't cut it for most of us.

re: Time to queue up 2009's first 'Year of the Linux Desktop' joke

robertsjoe — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:28:10 GMT

All you Microsoft fanboyz always retreat to the market share line. Did Microsoft send you a memo like the "Apple Tax" one they recently sent out to their drones?

Again with the market share line. Means nothing. Windows has a greater market share than OS X, yet OS X is greatly superior to Windows. Market share means nothing when it comes to the better OS. OS X beats Windows (including 7) easily. You, like the millions of other sheep, are using a flaky piece of software in Windows. Microsoft is to operating systems as McDonald's is to fine dining. So the only thing you can claim is market share, because you can't claim taste, ease of use, security and stability.

Stop being sheep. Stop eating the *** operating sandwich that is Windows.

re: Time to queue up 2009's first 'Year of the Linux Desktop' joke

Avro — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:23:14 GMT

@ Mike

"The ability to launch and use existing simple apps on an already configured system isn't much of a test of an operating system especially when the basic UI is a clone of Windows."

@shark47

"The difficult part, IMHO, is setting it up and troubleshooting. While it has improved over the years, the setup process is still painful when drivers are not automatically installed. Installing certain programs that aren't available in the program manager or whatever is also pretty painful at times. Maybe I'm just more used to Windows, but then, a lot of people are."

Actually I would say that Gnome looks more to OS X than Windows. As far as set up and configuration goes I have done installs of XP, Leopard and Ubuntu in the last year and none of them were difficult to setup within an hour. In fact XP was the most troublesome with the necessity to activate.

Ubuntu is essentially plug and play (no driver search) and in fact wireless was easier than XP. If you have something very exotic to install maybe it would be difficult - but for the average user peripherals, installing new apps and updating is just as easy or easier than Windows.

@Lindy

"Ball park how many desktops are we talking? How would you plan to update them all? Let the users do it? Ubuntu from what I have seen has lots of updates.

What about applications that do have an equivalent, would just forgo them. The applications you do replace them with, are they going to allow you to easily work with your outside business partners?

You ever really open a heavily formatted Word Doc in Open Office? In my experience not even a heavily formatted document never opens clean. There is always something to fix. Do that 50,000 times, it will probably get old."

For most people there would be equivalent apps and they are compatible.

Actually Word isn't great with long and complex documents, okay for a letter but so are most WPs. For big items you are probably going to use .pdf or something like LaTex.

@ Lindy

"What about user training? Help Desk training? How much will that cost? More than just sticking with Windows?"

A lot less it seems. The Economist reported last year that one Enterprise with 50 employees went over to Linux. The cost of training staff to use Open Office was the same as the price of one Microsoft licence and some of their computers required up to 5 Microsoft licences.

An issue for some would be outside support (we provide our own, so not an issue for us). Microsoft support is pretty commonplace and hence cheaper than Open Source support - for now.