OpenOffice.org is not slow - takes time to start but later on works OK. It's not bloatware either. Insert image of tens of KB in size into oowriter and save the result in MS Word format. Check the document size - it'll be around the size of the image itself. Now do the same using MS Office 2000. How many MB is that.doc big now?
Question is, for how long will this be available before Novell introduces something similar to Red Hat's stuff?
I see this whole situation as a long awaited clarification for everybody. At their disposal, Red Hat have open source software and tools to do what they do. Anybody else in this world does, as well. While Red Hat's move may and I think it will slow Linux addoption considerably, they have every right to ask money for all work they do to make their customers' lives easier. They want to make money and they don't have to give anything for free to the rest of us.
So, choice is ours - either pay for expertise and stability, move over to distro provided for free or use that same free code and build your own OS, as you are pleased. We'll have to consider 3 factors to make that move as painless as possible - money, time frame and our ability to do something on our own. It is about time to stop practicing hipocrisy.
I'm a bit surprised that there are still people out there who haven't at least started eval of various options - it's been a good few months since Red Hat announced the changes.
From what I've figured so far, the least painful one will be to start seriously looking at and deploying Fedora Core 1. The first release looks pretty impresive and from what I can see on various FC1 mailing lists, there are lots and lots of smart people, including some prominent RH employees, determined to make Fedora a very successful product.
Switching from RH 7, 8 or 9 to FC1 presents far lesser risk than any Windows upgade I've done since 95 came out.
Well, try installing Win2K on one of the newer Latitude laptops without using Dell's restore CD (which I have to do at work fom time to time). Bloody thing needs reboot after installing every single piece of hardware, including but not limited to, VGA, NIC, sound...
RH 9 on that box installs everything first time and after initial reboot, you are able to browse the internet (providing you're plugged into the connected network), you can create presentations, write documents and spreadsheets, use email, irc, IM, USB pen drive, mount network shares and so on.
Your definition of user-friendly, based on one particular device, is strange.
However, as most things in our lives today, IT consumption (can't really find a better word here) is mostly sub-product of the carefully crafted marketing campaigns. They were (are) so successful that human race in general finally got priorities totally fucked up and lost the ability to think rationally.
In the same way auto industry tells us that we can't really go from place A to place B if we don't have cruise-control equiped 4WD with 6 CD changer, fridge and self-adjusting aircon, even if place A is our home and place B supermarket 2 km away - IT industry wants us to believe that we need >3GHz monsters to process our email messages or text documents and that survival would be barely possible without pxt capable mobile freaking phones.
Two sides in this article are just the extremes in the whole story. The truth is somewhere in between.
However, I have just scored another school, couple hours ago. And guess what - I'm replacing W2K server, running ISA and Exchange. They also agreed on replacing Windows on the school's ICT lab PC's (16). And I'm going to put FedoraCore on all of them!
All this in New Zealand, where schools get MS software for free, due to pretty strange govt. contracts.
I went to the shop the other day, and I was in there for only about 5 minutes.
When I came out there was a motorcycle cop writing a parking ticket. So, I went up to him and said, "Come on man, how about giving a guy a break?"
He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. So I called him a pencil-necked Nazi.
He glared at me and started writing another ticket for worn tires! So I called him a piece of horse shit. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windscreen with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket! This went on for about 20 minutes... the more I abused him, the more tickets he wrote.
I didn't care. My car was parked around the corner.
Oh, they know. They just didn't want to do it - computers always had to be made monkey-proof. Not just PCs but servers as well, so that competent MCSEs can run corporate systems.
Slashdot Mirror
Check his acc No. He wasn't reading /. when those stories came out. He might be troll, as well.
Soviet Russia, 6 5 4 3 2 1
JAFA
Where's Will Smith here?
Your signature is definitelly inapropriate.
OpenOffice.org is not slow - takes time to start but later on works OK. It's not bloatware either. Insert image of tens of KB in size into oowriter and save the result in MS Word format. Check the document size - it'll be around the size of the image itself. Now do the same using MS Office 2000. How many MB is that .doc big now?
Next time, while you're at it, try to make a mistake and put (at least) Knoppix CD in - patients now need increased OSS doses.
I see this whole situation as a long awaited clarification for everybody. At their disposal, Red Hat have open source software and tools to do what they do. Anybody else in this world does, as well. While Red Hat's move may and I think it will slow Linux addoption considerably, they have every right to ask money for all work they do to make their customers' lives easier. They want to make money and they don't have to give anything for free to the rest of us.
So, choice is ours - either pay for expertise and stability, move over to distro provided for free or use that same free code and build your own OS, as you are pleased. We'll have to consider 3 factors to make that move as painless as possible - money, time frame and our ability to do something on our own. It is about time to stop practicing hipocrisy.
I feel gratified.
I'm glad I was able to do something for you - might help in fighting that depression.
From what I've figured so far, the least painful one will be to start seriously looking at and deploying Fedora Core 1. The first release looks pretty impresive and from what I can see on various FC1 mailing lists, there are lots and lots of smart people, including some prominent RH employees, determined to make Fedora a very successful product.
Switching from RH 7, 8 or 9 to FC1 presents far lesser risk than any Windows upgade I've done since 95 came out.
Around here, the word is pr0n.
You're probably slashdot champion in self-replies. To make things worse, they are dumb replies to even dumber posts.
RH 9 on that box installs everything first time and after initial reboot, you are able to browse the internet (providing you're plugged into the connected network), you can create presentations, write documents and spreadsheets, use email, irc, IM, USB pen drive, mount network shares and so on.
Your definition of user-friendly, based on one particular device, is strange.
However, as most things in our lives today, IT consumption (can't really find a better word here) is mostly sub-product of the carefully crafted marketing campaigns. They were (are) so successful that human race in general finally got priorities totally fucked up and lost the ability to think rationally.
In the same way auto industry tells us that we can't really go from place A to place B if we don't have cruise-control equiped 4WD with 6 CD changer, fridge and self-adjusting aircon, even if place A is our home and place B supermarket 2 km away - IT industry wants us to believe that we need >3GHz monsters to process our email messages or text documents and that survival would be barely possible without pxt capable mobile freaking phones.
Two sides in this article are just the extremes in the whole story. The truth is somewhere in between.
Regardless of the marketplace's final judgment, Torvalds probably sleeps a lot more soundly that Gates.
we've also found out about little known secret of Linus Torvalds. He snorts.
You forgot to mention how bloody boring bunch of lads they are, as well.
I was just going to suggest that you have to make sure Americans are informed on time.
There is no such thing as PII 200MHz. No such thing as Windows-not-shithole, either.
Well, perhaps you need to try Fedora rather than making decision based on half-assed Mac / XP user's review.
All this in New Zealand, where schools get MS software for free, due to pretty strange govt. contracts.
Dead, my ass. FUD does not work anymore.
I went to the shop the other day, and I was in there for only about 5 minutes.
When I came out there was a motorcycle cop writing a parking ticket. So, I went up to him and said, "Come on man, how about giving a guy a break?"
He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. So I called him a pencil-necked Nazi.
He glared at me and started writing another ticket for worn tires!
So I called him a piece of horse shit. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windscreen with the first.
Then he started writing a third ticket! This went on for about 20 minutes... the more I abused him, the more tickets he wrote.
I didn't care. My car was parked around the corner.
NNever. Maybe not even then.
Just a reference to the post few clicks above.
Oh, they know. They just didn't want to do it - computers always had to be made monkey-proof. Not just PCs but servers as well, so that competent MCSEs can run corporate systems.
In this case, trust is all that's left.