The original Ask/. was from a BSD user. BSD is not Linux. There are lots of spreadsheets which grandma can use on linux just as easily as excel on windows, but not on a PC that has a 475MHz K6-2 processor with 64MB RAM (read the original question). Actually, quite a few spreadsheets will run on a PC that has a 475MHz K6-2 processor with 64MB RAM. Will windows XP? XP is not ready for grandma if she owns a PC that has a 475MHz K6-2 processor with 64MB RAM.
The specs of the original question can run windows 98 with excel 97 quite nicely. It can also run FreeBSD with Gnumeric and Abiword quite nicely too. It can't run XP, or recent KDE or Gnome very well though.
Dos threw far more crap at the user then mainframes ever did. Yet the lesser options and increased maintenance were accepted because. Well I don't know. For some reason it seemed to make business sense.
Small businesses who couldn't afford a mainframe could afford a PC and then add more as the business grew. DOS machines were not the only option at that time. My father owned a computer that ran a multi-user multitasking OS called Concurrent CPM 86 - it was powered by a single 8086 processor!
I generally agree with pretty much all of your rant though. I'm another pinko penguin lover:)
Any country that wants any access to US markets will cave in to US requirements. I live in New Zealand. Our nearest neighbour, Australia, has managed to score better trade terms with the US than NZ by bending over to US demands. Our government will probably follow suit so NZ can have some of the same trade access to US markets. EU is going the same way. You wanna move to China or India? India might not be so bad. At least all the educated people speak english there.
WTF? My father-in-law's digital camera works fine with my wife's laptop which runs only linux. Mandrake 10.0. No drivers were required - just plug it in and it works.
I just refuse to do it. I don't use windows myself and if a family member has a problem that is directly related to using windows (rather than simple "how do I....") the only help I can give is migrating to linux. They don't have to migrate - they can find someone else who's prepared to clean up a windows box.
I defend my position by the fact that having left windows back in the mid 90s, I lack the expertise they require.
i can just picture how the decision to investigate went. the agent in charge probably said something like "yeah, it looks like a joke but go check it out to see whether or not you find something to show otherwise."
Exactly. It is their job to check out anything that looks like a threat. If someone famous got assassinated and it turns out that the authorities knew that some crazy had raved about it on a website prior to the assassination, they would be criticised for not checking it out, even though 99.9% of such rantings are harmless.
Probably. *nix users tend to take stuff like the network transparency of X11 for granted, while windows users may find it interesting that linux even has a gui, let alone a network transparent one.
If I had a $1 for every time a windows user says to me "Linux, isn't that like DOS?" I'd be richer than I am now.
You mean like "this page is deliberately left blank" or something like that? It's a long time since I looked at one of those IBM manuals, so I can't recall the exact wording.
If [MS-]Office were on Linux I could port all my end users to Linux without issue.
Which is exactly why Microsoft won't do it. They know that for many people, access to legacy MS-Office files is keeping them on the Windows platform, and thus on the lucrative (for Microsoft) upgrade treadmill.
MS-Office on Linux would be no more than a migration stepping stone for many users.
I guess the article (I only skimmed through it) is trying to make the point that to still be in business later, when most people have migrated off proprietary platforms, they need to start thinking now already about making money off OSS platforms.
I'm lucky that my home network is not multiplatform.
Printing: I just plugged the 2nd hand HP LaserJet with JetDirect card straight into the LAN switch, assigned an IP, and told each linux box that there was an lpd server at that address. It just worked.
Filesharing: I don't mount nfs or samba shares, I just use the "fish:" url in konqueror if I want to pull files across from one PC to another.
The company you work for will tell you nothing about when they change the product nor provide any useful training.
Yeah, I know all about that. Sometimes they just throw a document at you instead of providing training. And usually the document is inadequate. I call this the "Inadequate Documentation Instead Of Training Policy", or I.D.I.O.T. Policy for short.
The reason there's not much spyware on Linux is the same reason there isn't much in the way of viruses, worms, and popular commercial software: lack of market share.
This is the old "Windows-gets-attacked-because-it's-popular" myth. So Apache gets attacked more than IIS?
When always-run-as-root-and-never-install-security-patc hes-linux is installed on PCs sold in department store, then maybe linux will become as vulnerable as windows.
Well you see, I don't work in IT. I'm a phone lackie - Internet Accounts. I set up new customers and reset passwords and take their credit card payments. For technical support I transfer them to the technical helpdesk.
I run Mandrake, a newbie distro, on my computers at home, except for one which is running IPCop. I don't use windows at home, and we have an IT dept that locks me out of fiddling with W2K at work.
I could talk someone through setting up kppp if I had to, and can find my way around Mandrake's configuration tools, but I don't know much about the windows admin tools. I could work them out if I had to.
So yeah - windows is harder for me than linux. Not because windows is inherantly harder, but due to familiarity. Give me a week with a $200 set of MCSE training manuals and I'll be able to do all that windows stuff too.
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Err, no, with Bush in power, it's probably headed in the other direction
Yay! Does this mean Europe won't adopt stupid software patent laws? If so, I'm moving back to Europe! (I'm still a dutch citizen).
This is why Linux isn't ready for grandma.
/. was from a BSD user. BSD is not Linux.
The original Ask
There are lots of spreadsheets which grandma can use on linux just as easily as excel on windows, but not on a PC that has a 475MHz K6-2 processor with 64MB RAM (read the original question). Actually, quite a few spreadsheets will run on a PC that has a 475MHz K6-2 processor with 64MB RAM. Will windows XP? XP is not ready for grandma if she owns a PC that has a 475MHz K6-2 processor with 64MB RAM.
The specs of the original question can run windows 98 with excel 97 quite nicely. It can also run FreeBSD with Gnumeric and Abiword quite nicely too. It can't run XP, or recent KDE or Gnome very well though.
I know, IHBT.
Dos threw far more crap at the user then mainframes ever did. Yet the lesser options and increased maintenance were accepted because. Well I don't know. For some reason it seemed to make business sense.
:)
Small businesses who couldn't afford a mainframe could afford a PC and then add more as the business grew. DOS machines were not the only option at that time. My father owned a computer that ran a multi-user multitasking OS called Concurrent CPM 86 - it was powered by a single 8086 processor!
I generally agree with pretty much all of your rant though. I'm another pinko penguin lover
Any country that wants any access to US markets will cave in to US requirements. I live in New Zealand. Our nearest neighbour, Australia, has managed to score better trade terms with the US than NZ by bending over to US demands. Our government will probably follow suit so NZ can have some of the same trade access to US markets. EU is going the same way. You wanna move to China or India? India might not be so bad. At least all the educated people speak english there.
the enemy of my enemy is my temporary ally.
What does the "H" stand for?
using IE without a firewall is like having unprotected group sex blindfolded
Thanks for my new sig.
Anyone aiming for corporate desktop acceptance of linux would be foolish to ignore kde. I don't think Novell are that foolish.
Election's not til next year. I'm still trying to decide whether to vote for NZ First, Greens, or United Future.
Oh, you mean the USA elections. Why didn't you say so.
What's wrong with /dev/urandom? Not enough entropy?
My bad. I thouth it was fourth declension but I will accept your appeal to Lewis and Short which I'm too lazy to check out myself.
:)
Please note I got 38% in my 7th form Latin exam, so it's not my forté
WTF? My father-in-law's digital camera works fine with my wife's laptop which runs only linux. Mandrake 10.0. No drivers were required - just plug it in and it works.
I just refuse to do it. I don't use windows myself and if a family member has a problem that is directly related to using windows (rather than simple "how do I ....") the only help I can give is migrating to linux. They don't have to migrate - they can find someone else who's prepared to clean up a windows box.
I defend my position by the fact that having left windows back in the mid 90s, I lack the expertise they require.
Actually, the plural of a fourth declension noun ending in -us is -us with a long u.
i can just picture how the decision to investigate went. the agent in charge probably said something like "yeah, it looks like a joke but go check it out to see whether or not you find something to show otherwise."
Exactly. It is their job to check out anything that looks like a threat.
If someone famous got assassinated and it turns out that the authorities knew that some crazy had raved about it on a website prior to the assassination, they would be criticised for not checking it out, even though 99.9% of such rantings are harmless.
Probably. *nix users tend to take stuff like the network transparency of X11 for granted, while windows users may find it interesting that linux even has a gui, let alone a network transparent one.
If I had a $1 for every time a windows user says to me "Linux, isn't that like DOS?" I'd be richer than I am now.
There used to be a program called xmove which is the x11 equivalent to screen, but it is unmaintained and broken, I've been told.
In a *nix-only environment, I prefer ssh with X forwarding.
I've heard there are products that serve X over low bandwidth.
It helps if your documentation is crappy
You mean like "this page is deliberately left blank" or something like that? It's a long time since I looked at one of those IBM manuals, so I can't recall the exact wording.
When it comes to LaTeX, I cheat and use LyX.
Learning LaTeX and TeX are on my list of things to do.
If [MS-]Office were on Linux I could port all my end users to Linux without issue.
Which is exactly why Microsoft won't do it. They know that for many people, access to legacy MS-Office files is keeping them on the Windows platform, and thus on the lucrative (for Microsoft) upgrade treadmill.
MS-Office on Linux would be no more than a migration stepping stone for many users.
I guess the article (I only skimmed through it) is trying to make the point that to still be in business later, when most people have migrated off proprietary platforms, they need to start thinking now already about making money off OSS platforms.
I'm lucky that my home network is not multiplatform.
Printing: I just plugged the 2nd hand HP LaserJet with JetDirect card straight into the LAN switch, assigned an IP, and told each linux box that there was an lpd server at that address. It just worked.
Filesharing: I don't mount nfs or samba shares, I just use the "fish:" url in konqueror if I want to pull files across from one PC to another.
The company you work for will tell you nothing about when they change the product nor provide any useful training.
Yeah, I know all about that. Sometimes they just throw a document at you instead of providing training. And usually the document is inadequate.
I call this the "Inadequate Documentation Instead Of Training Policy", or I.D.I.O.T. Policy for short.
The reason there's not much spyware on Linux is the same reason there isn't much in the way of viruses, worms, and popular commercial software: lack of market share.
c hes-linux is installed on PCs sold in department store, then maybe linux will become as vulnerable as windows.
This is the old "Windows-gets-attacked-because-it's-popular" myth.
So Apache gets attacked more than IIS?
When always-run-as-root-and-never-install-security-pat
Well you see, I don't work in IT. I'm a phone lackie - Internet Accounts. I set up new customers and reset passwords and take their credit card payments. For technical support I transfer them to the technical helpdesk.
I run Mandrake, a newbie distro, on my computers at home, except for one which is running IPCop. I don't use windows at home, and we have an IT dept that locks me out of fiddling with W2K at work.
I could talk someone through setting up kppp if I had to, and can find my way around Mandrake's configuration tools, but I don't know much about the windows admin tools. I could work them out if I had to.
So yeah - windows is harder for me than linux. Not because windows is inherantly harder, but due to familiarity. Give me a week with a $200 set of MCSE training manuals and I'll be able to do all that windows stuff too.