Linux Advocacy From the Trenches

An anonymous reader writes "Tom Adelstein, longtime Linux advocate and consultant has spent the last year working closely with state, local, and federal government open source software initiatives. Tom launched Government Forge,spearheaded the Open Source bill in Texas and other programs. Tom shares the grass roots efforts that have offered him an insider's view of what is propelling Linux toward critical mass and the desktop. He shares his view of Linux "from the trenches" in this interview."

Comments

Re:Big Bully

[bigjocker]

When the anthropologists look back on the 1980s and 1990s and do the archaeological digs, and get their callipers and brooms and microscopes out, they will blame the massive reduction in productivity during the 1980s and 1990s entirely on Microsoft Office.

Scott McNealy, Press Club, Australia, 1996

Re:Linux is only lacking in the apps.

[JaredOfEuropa]

You're part right. One reason that I see people choose Windows over Linux is availability of applications, and mainly games. Yes, I know there are games for Linux... but the very fact that Linux fans whoop and cheer over every game company that decides to release something to Linux, should give you pause: apparently it is a rare occurance. The selection of games on Linux is tiny compared to what's available on PCs. And lets face it: many people want to play games on their home computers.

I think first real advance of Linux on the desktop is in the office. People are happy enough to endure Windows on their home machines, but more and more often you read stories about companies switching over for various reasons: draconic Windows license terms, reliability, control, cost of ownership, openness, etc. For this environment, ease of installing software by end users is not as important, and the available applications are sufficient for most office tasks. Luckily many corporate ERP or HR tools such as Siebel and Baan have a web interface these days, so they can be accessed from Linux desktops as well.

But the real test of Linux on the desktop is how friendly that desktop and the applications actually are. One powerful (and often-used) feature of Windows is cutting and pasting. Cutting and pasting of pretty much anything. You can select part of an image in any drawing application (even non-Mirosoft ones), and paste it into Word. You can cut part of a spreadsheet and paste it into Powerpoint. Cut formatted Word text and paste it as RTF into something else? Sure you can.

I haven't kept up with the various Linux desktops lately but last time I looked, copying plain ASCII was about all one could do, and clumsily at that. If we get this one thing right on the Linux desktop, we're one giant stride forward towards a desktop that people will actually like using.

Re:My wife once worked for Tom Adelstein....

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm just bitter because he fired my wife less than a week after finding out she was pregnant

Tom reportedly claimed he was selling company secrets to the Japanese

business model of acting as a US support center for Mandrake.

Something about your story reminds me of science fiction. I don't know the guy, but reading his interview and then your character assasination seems too incongruent. Why would someone who knows his way around a data center want to start a business supporting Mandrake? Sorry pal, I ain't buying your version.