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Linux Foundation President Used MacOS For Presentation at Open Source Summit (itsfoss.com)

Slashdot reader mschaffer writes:It appears that Jim Zemlin, President of the Linux Foundation, was using MacOS while declaring "2017 is officially the year of the Linux desktop!" at the Open Source Summit 2017. This was observed by several YouTube channels: Switched to Linux and The Lunduke Show. Finally it was reported by It's FOSS.

if, indeed, this is the year of desktop Linux, why oh why cannot people like Zemlin present a simple slide presentation -- let alone actually use a Linux distro for work.

A security developer at Google has now "spotted Jim Zemlin using Apple's macOS twice in last four years," according to the article, which complains the Foundation's admirable efforts on cloud/container technology has them neglecting Linux on the desktop.

Ironically, in March Zemlin told a cloud conference that organizations that "don't harvest the shared innovation" of open source "will fail."

20 of 284 comments (clear)

  1. Presenter laptop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When I present, usually my slides are loaded onto a conference laptop.

  2. Obligatory Nelson Muntz quote by quonset · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ha ha!

  3. Re:Because by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There is no good software for presentations on Linux that compares to Keynote or PowerPoint.

    Jupyter Notebooks presentation mode is great.

    It is lacking in key features like "Word Art", but for a technical presentation it's pretty good.

  4. Dogfood by NaCh0 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Do you want to know the best way for an executive to give an out of touch presentation?

    Don't use your own product.

    What this guy does isn't a huge deal, but if he had personal trouble with the linux desktop, perhaps he or most likely one of the developers under his influence would scratch that itch for all of us. Leadership is a tough thing when you don't live by example.

  5. Re:Because by chipschap · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is no good software for presentations on Linux that compares to Keynote or PowerPoint.

    I've found this to be true only at very extreme levels of flashiness where razzle and dazzle are more important than content, and you want people paying attention to the special effects rather than the point you're trying to get across, if there even is one.

    The most probable scenario for this, in my own experience, is suits selling expensive stuff to suits ... stuff that the salesman doesn't really understand and the prospective buyer maybe isn't capable of understanding.

    Short of that, if you, you know, actually want to get a message across, Linux has all sorts of excellent options.

  6. Re:Because by sombragris · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm no Apple user so I don't know about Keynote. But for ensuring compatibility, I make sure that my wife's PowerPoint presentations are all converted to PDF.

    Anyway, in Linux you could use Impress, which is more than enough for most people in need of a graphical slide editor.

    As for me, in my lectures I use Beamer in LaTeX, which is more than enough for my needs. And its output is, again, PDF.

    I can project anything of these with Okular in presentation mode, easily. So I think Linux is more than capable in the area.

    --
    -- Look to the Rose that blows about us--"Lo, Laughing," she says, "into the World I blow..."
  7. The same Reason Many of us Greybeards use MACs by williamyf · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My FOSS days started in 1995 with FreeBSD, and then in 1996 with Linux (Slackware Unleashed, I forget the Version) in the University, then I was a firm proponent on the server side... I've been hearing about the linux desktop for a loooong time...

    But, that was 22 years ago. Nowadays, in a production desktop, I have some requirements, which are quite different from the requirements on a Phone, or a Kiosk, or a retail point, or a computer for Kids/Schools:

    * I want the power of an OpenSource Unix (Darwin) under the Hood, wrapped in a slick GUI (sadly, propiertary) that makes my workflow Easier and does not change all of the sudden (BTW, Ubuntians, how's the Transition from MIR/Unity to Wayland GNOME going?).

    * Also, is nice if the Hardware in which that software resides is well built, and all the drivers play nice (granted, thanks to things like Dell's project MIR, this is easier nowadays with Linux too). I have stuff to do. Playing decetvive with drivers and libraries was entertaining in 2002 (last time I did that). Nowadays, not so much, quite the contrary, very, very frustrating!!!

    * Also, I want commonly used productivity Software available, no matter if it is FOSS or Closed. The dektop/laptop is a TOOL for Production, I want to use the most suitable tools to do my work. For instance, when I was teaching at the university, I did Everything using LibreOffice (for MAC). When I started doing technical training for Telco OpenStack Cloud (Huawei's Flavour) and Hadoop/Spark/Storm (Nokia's CEMoD 16), I pretty much had to use Office. otherwise, the powerpoints would loose all formatting, and it would take ages to fix that (and no one paid me to fix it), Macros in the Excel report sheets would be borked. Also, many iLO/IPIMI/Javascript crap would not work on Linux... You get the drift.

    * But, from time to time I have to unwind. I want the available games in steam for my machine to cont in the Thousands, not in the hundreds...

    * Speaking of telco clouds: What do you think those clouds used? If you guessed KVM, Redhat, CentOS, SuSE, Apache, Puppet, MariaDB, Postgres, yarn, etc, you are right, come collect your prize. The requirements for servers are different than from desktop, which in turn are different from cellphones, which in turn are different from kids/school computers, which in turn are different from ... you get the idea!!!

    Now, these are the reasons why he did it. Having said that, the irony does not escape me that, he being a top dog in a linux company, he should "Eat his own dog food". Even microsoft eats their own dog food.

    But, this being The Linux Foundation, and not The GNU/Linux foundation, or the FOSS foundation: how much of FOSS is "his own dog food". Certainly the linux kernel is. But neither X-free86 nor Wayland seems to be part of his dog food. Nor are KDE/GNOME/Enligthment/all other window environments out there. Is Pulseaudio/ALSA part of his dog food? What about security practices like demanding the root PW for changing the timezone or adding a printer from school? So, If the guy used a MAC with OSX instead of linux, can you blame him? perhaps a little bit, yes. If he also used PowerPoint or Keynote instead of LibreOffice, can you blame him? In my oppinion, no way!!!!

    Do not believe me, well, perhaps this guy who was using a macbook on 2012 (with linux), that does not like GNOME 3 and maybe, just maybe, knows a thing or two about linux (certainly he knows more about linux than me and you), can enlighten you all, even more than I can, on why some people preffer MACs to Linux and WinPCs. Please read his rant on the link...

    http://www.zdnet.com/article/l...

    --
    *** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
    1. Re:The same Reason Many of us Greybeards use MACs by loonycyborg · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Software quality on Macs had sharply declined and you aren't in any better position than a windows or linux user anymore wrt stability and bugginess. So the only remaining reason to use anything Apple now is to show your social status.

    2. Re:The same Reason Many of us Greybeards use MACs by rcase5 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      When I started my web development and hosting business 15 years ago, I decided to go with Linux for my servers and MacOS for my business-related desktop. There were a few reasons for this decision, but here are the most important:
      1. MacOS plays well with Linux. MacOS natively speaks the same protocols that Linux does, most importantly ssh.
      2. I needed the ability to run commercial software that was not readily available on Linux, such as Quickbooks.
      3. I can't STAND Windows! Windows had me cussing and swearing up a storm for a while before I started the business, and I saw absolutely no reason to subject myself to that nonsense, especially since MacOS would cover many the holes I needed covered from a commercial software standpoint (see points 1 & 2).

      That was then. Nowadays, I find myself in agreement with Rick Beato. Apple hardware is increasingly becoming more about form over function. At least Apple hardware used to be about both; it looked good, but it also functioned well with at least some degree of serviceability and compatibility down the road (for their computers, anyway). Plus, I'm really finding that I don't need to rely on commercial software as much as I used to, and everything I need I can run on Linux. So I am currently using the last set of Apple computers I will probably ever buy. The next systems I buy for the business will be just like the systems I buy for me personally; the desktop will be something I assemble myself, and the notebook will be something well-built but relatively inexpensive that I will promptly see a Linux distro installed over what will likely be a Windows 10 pre-install.

      But to say that Apple is the last platform a tech user should use is completely wrong, especially if you deal with the Linux world on a regular basis. I would say MacOS is essential if you're a tech user that needs some compatibility with commercial software but also works in the Linux world, and is FAR superior to Windows in that context.

    3. Re:The same Reason Many of us Greybeards use MACs by demonlapin · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, there's also WAF. My last Windows machine was fantastic for the time, and I had a great 27" monitor. But my office is in the formal part of a formal house, and she didn't want a bunch of cables. So I bought an iMac when it was starting to age, and frankly, I'm perfectly happy with it. Unix CLI, decent GUI, and it can even run Windows in a pinch. I bought a Mac for the looks. And it does look a hell of a lot better than most of the other stuff out there, even Dell's all-in-ones, at basically no price premium.

      Performance is more important than aesthetics when you're talking servers, but for a desktop? I'm not crunching numbers. I'm mostly surfing, and the Mac looks better and doesn't really cost much more (if any) than a comparably-capable Windows machine. I do miss my two-monitor setup, but that's a separate issue (the Mac can do it, I just don't; gave my old big monitor to a guy with macular degeneration so he could actually read things).

  8. Sigh. by ledow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Eat your own dog food.

    If you can't, then you have no faith in your own products.

    To be honest, Linux Foundation was always just some-off, not-affecting-me group anyway. I never quite get what they do, or where the money comes from or goes to.

    But you can't say "Linux does/doesn't work on the desktop" until you've done it yourself.

    P.S. Yes, I've done it. Exclusively. For 8+ years. While managing Windows networks for a living. It's perfectly viable, and in many ways better.

    Nowadays, though, I virtualise everything so it barely matters what the core-OS is and can work in Linux or Windows depending on what I'm doing.

    For sure, if I was working for something called the Linux Foundation, myself and EVERYONE under me would be using Linux. Unless I literally had used it and had deemed it inadequate myself, in which case there's be bigger problems than what my people were using to get their work done.

  9. Re:Because by sombragris · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Agreed with parent. And in addition, the examples offered by grandparent are corner cases. Most desktop work is done in an office suite and/or a Web browser. In both regards, Linux is well covered.

    --
    -- Look to the Rose that blows about us--"Lo, Laughing," she says, "into the World I blow..."
  10. Re:Because by rrohbeck · · Score: 3, Informative

    I use LibreOffice. Never had a problem with PowerPoint compatibility in either direction.

  11. Uh... by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 3, Informative

    Ironically, in March Zemlin told a cloud conference that organizations that "don't harvest the shared innovation" of open source "will fail."

    What's ironic? macOS does "harvest" open source code. Tons of it.

  12. Re:Doesn't Help Much by Harlequin80 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Because the conference is operated by a 3rd party company. They made sure everything is working and the provide pre-tested equipment and setup. You don't setup your own systems at a conference hall.

  13. Re:Because by emaname · · Score: 3, Informative

    I use LibreOffice. Never had a problem with PowerPoint compatibility in either direction.

    I used to say that.

    Last April I was given a MS PPT to convert to LibreOffice. The bullets changed (and not in a good way), the font changed, all the indents changed, all the animations stopped working, and there were problems with some of the images. Essentially I had to recreate the entire presentation.

    Then when I tried moving it back, everything fell apart again regardless in which file format I "saved as."

    There was a time when I could create PPT presentations and move them between OSes. It doesn't appear to be that way anymore.

    BTW, I had all the MS fonts installed on my Linux machine, the most recent kernel, and most recent LibreOffice. My distro uses rolling updates. Didn't matter.

    LibreOffice still has work to do. I'll still promote it to people I know. But it still needs work.

    --
    An effective "democracy" creates the illusion the people have a say in their government.
  14. Re:Doesn't Help Much by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 3, Insightful

    All that does is change the question to why a conference called the "Open Source Summit 2017" does not use Linux to present. I suspect the reason is that presentations are all about polish and while I love Open Source software the one (and perhaps only) thing that commercial software does seem to do better is polish.

    I use MacOS, Linux, and Windows computers. I use any of them to present with. Makes no difference to me, and shouldn't make any difference to anyone else. He was using a UNIX computer which is quite similar to a Linux computer. Has it been confirmed that his computer is running the MacOS operating system? I have a nice old 27 inch Core2Duo iMack I have Linux installed on sitting beside me.

    Regardless, this is a really dumb thing to get excited about.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  15. Re:Doesn't Help Much by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Because the conference is operated by a 3rd party company. They made sure everything is working and the provide pre-tested equipment and setup. You don't setup your own systems at a conference hall.

    You sure about that? I've gone to meetings with others with the sole intent of making certain that the presentation works. The first priority is that my specific laptop was used. And very often you do not want your slideshow ot be on someone elses computer period. You know - reasons.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  16. Re:Because by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 3, Informative

    I use LibreOffice. Never had a problem with PowerPoint compatibility in either direction.

    I used to say that.

    Last April I was given a MS PPT to convert to LibreOffice. The bullets changed (and not in a good way), the font changed, all the indents changed, all the animations stopped working, and there were problems with some of the images.

    I've had that happen from one Windows machine to another. Or Windows to MacOS. Or MacOS to Windows. Office is simply not compatible with anything - including itself. This is exactly why I insisted on the presentation running on a vetted laptop where the presentation was opened, saved, and all slides veerified if MO was used.

    There is only one Office suite that works on all three, and is compatible between all three. And that is AO.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  17. Re:Because by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    LibreOffice still has work to do.

    I wonder if they do, your example sounds familiar to me .... without ever leaving Powerpoint. Duplicating slides, copying and pasting content, even copying and pasting formatting, or moving a slide from one presentation to the other (selecting either keep source formatting or use destination) has frequently resulted in messed up formatting for me.

    I've also had that between different computers where something that looked fine on my laptop suddenly ran off the edge of the page on the presentation machine, even on the same version of MS Office.