Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Lindows Announces Nvu - Frontpage For Linux?

Posted by simoniker on from the beer-and-webauthoring-perfect-playmates dept.

CmdrStone writes "Michael Robertson, the Lindows founder, has announced in his 'Michael's Minute' newsletter that Lindows has started the creation of a Frontpage-type program for Linux, called Nvu." Nvu promises to be "...a complete Web Authoring System for Linux Desktop users to rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver", is "100% open source", and will be free to download when it launches.

8 of 643 comments (clear)

  1. Hopefully by skank · · Score: 5, Insightful

    it will be more like dreamweaver, and less like frontpage. I can handle a tool that takes out a lot of the headaches from doing rollovers, adding scripting, and flash files. Dreamweaver was always great at that (I haven't messed with web design in a few years). But if anyone tries something as stupid as frontpage extensions, I hope the whole community laughs in thier face. From what I've seen from him, he is not stupid, just trying to make it easier for non-tech geeks to get away from windows, and this could be a good thing. I have had many people tell me one of the reasons for shying away from linux is (besides lack of cutting edge games) no easy wysiwyg html editors. Not everyone wants to lookn at the code. Granted, even when I used to use dreamweaver, the code always got cleaned up in homesite or notepad (thank god I use linux now) before it ever saw the net. This should work out to be a good move.

  2. Re:People actually use those things? by Gherald · · Score: 4, Insightful

    > People actually use those things?
    > I thought every self-respecting geek just used text editors.

    You just answered your own question. Nvu is for people, not geeks.

    --
    The unofficial /. digest
  3. What we really need... by rsilvergun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    is a Quickbooks replacement. Give me that and I could have every office in town running Linux. I mean, with it you can have a $25,000/year secretary do your accounting instead of a $60,000+ CPA (at least for small to mid-sized businesses). That's the killer app Linux is missing.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:What we really need... by Tony · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ....but all can be sued if something bad happens.

      Has this ever happened? I have *never* heard of an accounting software company, or even Microsoft, being sued for buggy or bad software, even when data has been destroyed.

      Never.

      The accounting software we use is not guaranteed, and we use a big small one. (Banner, from SCT.) I don't even think SAP is guaranteed to work.

      Most contracts have words to the effect of, "If there is a problem with the program, we will do our best to help you recover lost data, etc, as long as your contract is up-to-date."

      The GNU Public License, the BSD License, and just about every variation and incarnation of open source licenses states very clearly that the software is not guaranteed or warranteed in any ways.

      And this is a great business opportunity for anyone at all, not just the producers of the software. You can form a company that will support and warrant the software. That's essentially what Red Hat and Suse and IBM does. It's a great business model, as it reduces the barrier to entry.

      --
      Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
  4. This could be a GIANT leap forward... by ZuperDee · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I know there are a lot of geeks out there who will blast this effort as unnecessary--they are the same people who believe the best HTML editor is really a text-editor with an HTML quick-reference sheet handy... These are some of the very same people who loathe the idea of ANYTHING that might pollute the open source world with Windows-like things--in short: anything that infringes on their idea of Unix-like purity. Sure, I too can edit HTML myself if I really wanted to.

    However, I think this effort is a HUGE leap forward, not only because it is all open source, but because it is one more tool in the open source arsenal that can be used to fight back at the Microsoft camp.

    The fact of the matter is, there are a LOT of people out there for whom FrontPage is absolutely indispensible. These are some of the same people who will be asking a very pointed and straightforward question about migrating to Linux: "Will Linux run something like Microsoft Office?" Just as we need an Office suite like OpenOffice or StarOffice, I think it is high time we had a complete website authoring tool. People from all walks of life, both those in the professional world as well as those doing it just as a hobby, could benefit.

  5. Re:It's Mozilla Composer by tsmoke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That is *precisely* why this is cool. He's funded an existing open source project to make it better. According to the about section, they've contracted the lead Composer developer to extend and improve the existing code-base.

    If the rubric for giving props to a company is building entirely new applications and products (and introducing all the bugs and problems that suggests) rather than supporting (with money!) existing projects, then only the companies that make the worst decisions will be applauded.

  6. Actually a good thing by GarfBond · · Score: 5, Insightful
    For those of you who aren't aware, Mozilla Composer's component owner, Daniel Glazman, has been employed by Lindows.com to continue work on Composer++ (a very good thing), which in turn will serve as the codebase for this new product, nvu. For those of you not believing that Lindows.com is serious about this (and I agree, this is easy to believe), let me remind you of the following:

    • Lindows.com is *paying* a developer to continue working on a current OSS product, Mozilla, which in turn will add to their product
    • nvu claims to be fully open source, which they seem to have every intention of following up on.
    • Lindows.com is paying.
    This is a case of lindows putting their money where their mouth is. They're contributing to open source, while also trying to differentiate themselves in the market. Let's give em a chance here.
  7. Re:It's Mozilla Composer by l810c · · Score: 5, Insightful
    take an existing open source project, change a few graphics, and call it a revolutionary new product which will change the world.

    Isn't this one of the main things we see in the Linux/Open Source arena? What is Mandrake? All of the Distros and other projects? The changes may have been minor to begin with, but eventually they grow into very different products. If he's putting resources and keeping it open source behind it might just turn into a nice editor.