See, this type of argument is the exact reason why Linux on the consumer's desktop will never work.
OpenOffice is not "100% compatible" because it just so happens that Microsoft's closed document standards are, unfortunately, the "accepted" standard for documentation - this is due to clever Microsoft marketing, not a fault of OpenOffice. ODF and RTF are open formats that are supported by OpenOffice.
Whether or not Openoffice supports a file type that Office can is not the problem. The problem is as you say clever marketing. The.doc format is the defacto standard for all word processing documents. I've even talked with hiring managers in all Linux shops and they ask for a Word formatted resume.
So you just choose your hardware wisely, that's all. I've purchased two laptops within the past 6 months, a Gateway one and an HP one. I think the only thing that doesn't work on one of them is the button above the keyboard to turn off/on the wireless network interface. Oh, and I use Gentoo and I have use of native LCD resolutions.
No consumer is going to want to have to try and match up their hardware to their OS. They want to take it out of the package install it and "It just works". The LCD resolution is just a minor thing, after hours of digging I found that you have to hack the video bios to get my native widescreen res out of the LCD. The real hard part is getting frame buffer to operate at native res. The only way to accomplish this is to load the framebuffer module after you have hacked the video bios. But because of that there is no pretty bootspash for me.
So how about doing something constructive and contacting games companies to make native Linux games ports if that's what you want? Rather than just sitting there moaning and not doing anything. If there are enough people like you, maybe some of those companies will do something.
We, as a community, have been doing exactly that for over 5 years now and we still don't have but a couple of native games and that crappy Cedega. But because the game producers don't think that Linux is even in the same league, much less the same ballpark as the other OS, we will never have the choices available to get our game on.
Most Linux people are relatively happy with the state of nVidia and ATI drivers, for example, which are closed source. Sure, sometimes they release rubbish versions and a lot of hackers (not "crackers") would love to get their hands on the source code to these but that's just the way it is. I'm just happy there is *some* support.
The state of video drivers is not the only issue here. I'm happy that these companies provide drivers for their hardware, I just wish more hardware manufactuers would do the same. The point of this argument was that the negative feelings that manufacturers get from Linux users for providing closed source drivers is about the same as not providing them at all. So what's the point in their eyes. As long as we as a community vilify software and hardware developers for writting closed source solutions Linux will remain a limp bird.
As far as my choice of distro and my level of knowledge, now it your turn to make sweeping statements with anything to back them up. I have been working professionally with Linux since 1998. And all of it has been integrating Linux with Windows based networks. I love the idea of using Samba as a PDC. I love using MySQL for our corporate databases. And apache is the only web server as far as I'm concerned. But thank you I will go back to my Windows and moan, moan about how much I'd rather have an alternative that is capable of doing the most basic tasks that consumers ask of it.
As a long time Gentoo user I have dealt with many problems over the years trying to use a Linux distro as a main desktop OS. And I have finally come to the conclusion that Linux on the desktop is not only dead, but never really got started.
I sit in chatrooms trying to help newbies and all I hear is "is there a Linux app that works like " And when you point them to the Linux equivalent they come back stating that the product you pointed them to is incomplete. Take Office and Openoffice.org for example. Sure Office is very bloated, but it is also the defacto standard and Openoffice has never been and probably never will be 100% compatible.
Another example is the day to day life of a web surfer, videos and flash from the web. All the interfaces available for Linux to stream video are so clunky that they are nearly unusable. And don't even get me started on Flash. It just sucks on Linux.
And then you have the poor hardware support. I have two laptops and two desktops. My two laptops are completely out of the question as most of the hardware is too new to be fully supported. Everything from native LCD resolutions to no native support for the wireless card. And on my desktops, one still runs Gentoo as a server, which Linux is ideally suited for, the other, in order to play games (which once again is pathetic on Linux) I have to run that other OS.
So to all the fanatics and fanboys, Linux will never be a force on the consumer's desktop. It's not bad on the business desktop because of its management capabilities and actually because of some of the flaws listed above (no worrying about employees watching movies or wasting time on Flash games). And in the back room Linux is the light in a once dark world with its power and plethora of server software.
Until the hardware manufacturers start writing native drivers (and aren't vilified for keeping their company secrets hidden) and until the major software manufacturers begin to believe that Linux is a viable consumer platform, Linux on the desktop is dead.
What about the other end of the equation?
Becuase the human resource end doesn't require highly specialized labor, i.e. the UAW, then the costs of manufactured goods can come down.
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See, this type of argument is the exact reason why Linux on the consumer's desktop will never work.
OpenOffice is not "100% compatible" because it just so happens that Microsoft's closed document standards are, unfortunately, the "accepted" standard for documentation - this is due to clever Microsoft marketing, not a fault of OpenOffice. ODF and RTF are open formats that are supported by OpenOffice.
Whether or not Openoffice supports a file type that Office can is not the problem. The problem is as you say clever marketing. The .doc format is the defacto standard for all word processing documents. I've even talked with hiring managers in all Linux shops and they ask for a Word formatted resume.
So you just choose your hardware wisely, that's all. I've purchased two laptops within the past 6 months, a Gateway one and an HP one. I think the only thing that doesn't work on one of them is the button above the keyboard to turn off/on the wireless network interface. Oh, and I use Gentoo and I have use of native LCD resolutions.
No consumer is going to want to have to try and match up their hardware to their OS. They want to take it out of the package install it and "It just works". The LCD resolution is just a minor thing, after hours of digging I found that you have to hack the video bios to get my native widescreen res out of the LCD. The real hard part is getting frame buffer to operate at native res. The only way to accomplish this is to load the framebuffer module after you have hacked the video bios. But because of that there is no pretty bootspash for me.
So how about doing something constructive and contacting games companies to make native Linux games ports if that's what you want? Rather than just sitting there moaning and not doing anything. If there are enough people like you, maybe some of those companies will do something.
We, as a community, have been doing exactly that for over 5 years now and we still don't have but a couple of native games and that crappy Cedega. But because the game producers don't think that Linux is even in the same league, much less the same ballpark as the other OS, we will never have the choices available to get our game on.
Most Linux people are relatively happy with the state of nVidia and ATI drivers, for example, which are closed source. Sure, sometimes they release rubbish versions and a lot of hackers (not "crackers") would love to get their hands on the source code to these but that's just the way it is. I'm just happy there is *some* support.
The state of video drivers is not the only issue here. I'm happy that these companies provide drivers for their hardware, I just wish more hardware manufactuers would do the same. The point of this argument was that the negative feelings that manufacturers get from Linux users for providing closed source drivers is about the same as not providing them at all. So what's the point in their eyes. As long as we as a community vilify software and hardware developers for writting closed source solutions Linux will remain a limp bird.
As far as my choice of distro and my level of knowledge, now it your turn to make sweeping statements with anything to back them up. I have been working professionally with Linux since 1998. And all of it has been integrating Linux with Windows based networks. I love the idea of using Samba as a PDC. I love using MySQL for our corporate databases. And apache is the only web server as far as I'm concerned. But thank you I will go back to my Windows and moan, moan about how much I'd rather have an alternative that is capable of doing the most basic tasks that consumers ask of it.
As a long time Gentoo user I have dealt with many problems over the years trying to use a Linux distro as a main desktop OS. And I have finally come to the conclusion that Linux on the desktop is not only dead, but never really got started.
I sit in chatrooms trying to help newbies and all I hear is "is there a Linux app that works like " And when you point them to the Linux equivalent they come back stating that the product you pointed them to is incomplete. Take Office and Openoffice.org for example. Sure Office is very bloated, but it is also the defacto standard and Openoffice has never been and probably never will be 100% compatible.
Another example is the day to day life of a web surfer, videos and flash from the web. All the interfaces available for Linux to stream video are so clunky that they are nearly unusable. And don't even get me started on Flash. It just sucks on Linux.
And then you have the poor hardware support. I have two laptops and two desktops. My two laptops are completely out of the question as most of the hardware is too new to be fully supported. Everything from native LCD resolutions to no native support for the wireless card. And on my desktops, one still runs Gentoo as a server, which Linux is ideally suited for, the other, in order to play games (which once again is pathetic on Linux) I have to run that other OS.
So to all the fanatics and fanboys, Linux will never be a force on the consumer's desktop. It's not bad on the business desktop because of its management capabilities and actually because of some of the flaws listed above (no worrying about employees watching movies or wasting time on Flash games). And in the back room Linux is the light in a once dark world with its power and plethora of server software.
Until the hardware manufacturers start writing native drivers (and aren't vilified for keeping their company secrets hidden) and until the major software manufacturers begin to believe that Linux is a viable consumer platform, Linux on the desktop is dead.
What about the other end of the equation? Becuase the human resource end doesn't require highly specialized labor, i.e. the UAW, then the costs of manufactured goods can come down.