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Analysis of SuSE Linux Desktop
pdajames writes "ZDNet UK has a look at the new SuSE Linux Desktop, running Microsoft Office. They seem to think Linux is just about there when it comes to desktop users, although their words about StarOffice are not so kind. It seems like some of the reality of desktop Linux is starting to match the hype." Not being an Office power user myself, I felt that way a long time ago, but it's cool to see projects like Evolution get some more street cred.
SuSE is what allowed me to leave windows.
I've tried RedHat, Debian, and Mandrake. They all really do not work well for the desktop.
SuSE, however, has automatic updates (nightly!), EXCELLENT support (although RedHat has support, it is very expensive.)
All in all, fine tuned, ergonomic, German Precision.
A++.
You can try it out if you do an installation right from an FTP server. Granted, ISOs would be nicer, plus the FTP install doesn't come with all the extra software found in the Professional bundle, but still...
The ruckus over Ximian Desktop was because it replaces a lot of core system packages (well, gnome/gtk packages) so must be tuned for each distribution separately. It's a bit odd that XD2 doesn't support the "Enterprise" editions of distros though.
It will be in version 1.1. Just as PDF export for windows and swf export.
You can download beta2 and see for your self.
Signature Pro version 1.13.2-3 release 83.5 beta3try7 after-breakfast edition
What about their FTP server? I thought that you could create an install disk and then pull down a working system from their server, for free. In fact, I found the link in just 2 or 3 clicks on their site.
My Greasemonkey scripts for Digg &
There isn't a macro recorder, and for obscure technical reasons, there isn't likely to be one in the near future.
That's plain wrong, there's already a Macro recorder in OOo Writer 1.1 beta2. I also wonder which version they've used. I've been running 1.0.1 for professional purposes without big problems. And the problem I encountered were fixed in 1.1beta2.
They have a Basic intrepreter for stuff like that. It's called IIRC OpenOffice Basic.
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
My
Progression over the last 3.5 years, '()' indicate experiments:
Mac 8.6, WIn98, (RH6.1),Win2K, (Yellow Dog, PPC) WInXP Home, Suse 8.1.
The Mac installs were always ez, the win installs were tedious, the RH & Yellow Dog/PPC had me reading manuals left & right. The SuSE install was brain-dead easy (easiest one of the bunch!, even easier than Mac), except for my lack of experience in assigning partitions (found a nice partioning scheme in the LAMP book (Lee, Ware - Addison Wesley).
Still fighting the WIn2K server & converting some Office docs, but that's just a matter of studying.
I'm not really a web designer, I just play one on the Internet.
Here...
Office is one of the 'richest' windows programs in that it uses every possible API under the sun.
It's not like it's just using Win32 like for example Winamp or Regedit would... on top of the regular stuff (GDI, Win32), it extensively uses COM/DCOM/ActiveX, and not the simple features in those either.
Kudos is what I have to say. Even though I agree with parent post =)
I've been trying to switch over completely from *f*ing MS Office to OpenOffice, but unfortunately the lack of Outline view/function in OpenOffice is a major problem, that and lack of support for support for EndNote (a reference managing program).
:]
(As a scientist, I have to write a lot of grant applications for my living). Thus, outlining big hairy elaborate boring technical writing things is vastly helped by an outliner. Probably like this post would have been.
Anyway, does anyone know of a good Linux program that allows one to prepare and re-organize writing in an Outline form? No, don't tell me to use Emacs, that would be like a, er, well I can't think of anything clever so I'll just say a mis-use of a fine product.
I think, therefore I thought.
I thought the main reason that Munich went with SuSE is because of cost. But looking at the numbers, I don't see the savings:
Pricing
SuSE sells SLD only in combination with a maintenance programme that covers a minimum of five desktops. The five-desktop, one-year maintenance contract, along with an installation kit, runs at $598, with $99.80 for each additional desktop. A 10-client, one-year contract costs $998 with the installation kit and further discounts kick in for higher-volume customers.
As an education customer, I can buy a perpetual license of Windows XP Professional for $59 per CPU, and $15 for an installation disc. This is not a one-year contract, but a license that is owned for that CPU for its life.
I'm not a Microsoft fan (I'm a Mac person, mostly) but since governments get even better software pricing than education, I would be curious to know what Munich was offered to use Windows over Linux.
From the above description, I don't see SuSE's offering as competitively priced. (Even if it was a longer term license!)
Where am I wrong?
I think it was more of a comment on general ease-of-install nowadays versus back in the good ol' days of DOS 6.22, not cliched MS-bashing.
Windows XP, 2k, as well as Red Hat 9 and Mandrake all intalled flawlessly on my computer with no configuration needed. All of them compare quite favorably to nightmares with managing IRQs and finding obscure drivers back with Windows 3.1 or somesuch.
For Microsoft you pay 99$ per incident via mail and 249$ per incident via phone.
Both are included in SuSE's offering, AFAIK.
Link
Leo does a great job with what you're asking for. It's really intended to be more of a programming tool than a writer's outliner, but it still does the job of outlining beautifully, and has some nice perks thrown in. Plus, it's free.
I've used it for organizing book chapters, and it does that job beautifully. I even have a friend who uses it for outlining, writing, and then automatically outputting finished text in LaTeX. That goes way beyond my needs of simple outlining. Unfortunately, Leo doesn't let you print your outline directly to paper. You have to follow an exporting command, and in the process you'll lose your outline's hierarchical format.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
Well, that's quite interesting..... yes, it does use quite a lot of APIs, however after working on Wine for a bit you realise that the Win32 API is so labyrinthine that almost every app, no matter how small or obscure, will use it in a slightly different way.
In fact, Office itself isn't quite so bad compared to for instance Internet Explorer. Quite a lot of Offices stuff is kept internal for whatever reason.
If you want to see an app that REALLY uses DCOM, look at Internet Explorer or InstallShield (no kidding).
Oh what a pile of BS. Come sit in #commits on freenode for a while. The last few commits have almost all been usability related, even really small stuff like getting the use of ellipses right.
The rest of the post is just talking about OpenOffice. Yep, it has not so great usability. But OTOH neither does MS Office, I mean really the thing is riddled with problems.
You can't take ONE program, which has been open source for not very long at all, and extrapolate that to the whole world of open source code.
If you want an easy to use, HIG compliant word processor, use AbiWord 2. Most of the work done on the GTK2 frontend lately has been about HIG compliance.
A, if not the, big problem with open source development is that it's not good at fixing usability problems. Too few developers read Bruce Tognazzini, or know who Susan Kare is. They think "user friendly" means "has skins".
Openoffice is ugly. That's just a given. That does NOT imply that all open-source projects are unusable and poorly designed. Try a recent version of Gnome, you'll be pleasantly surprised by how well the apps follow a consistent human interface guide. If you report UI stupidity as a bug on a gnome project, it will be fixed.
You can rip on OpenOffice all you want, but please educate yourself a little before you assume all open-source projects are the same. (Or don't, it probably won't get you a "+5, Insightful" on slashdot nearly as fast.)
0 1 - just my two bits
Currently verging on vapor, but an idea whose time is very soon if not now.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
I think most of the problems you note about OO are very much because it was a commercial product. It did things to unnecessarily copy MS Office, or to look superficially fancy or featureful, or it used a monolithic structure necessitated by the commercial distribution process.
I think LyX, which has already been mentioned in another post, is a good compromise. It is based on LaTeX, so you can use LaTeX for formulae, tree diagrams etc, and on the other hand, it comes quite close to WYSIWYG (if you count previewing the DIV files, it is WYSIWYG). People who are used to LaTeX perhaps prefer writing LaTeX source code, but I think for many LyX is a good way to have the best of both worlds.