"I am playing devils advocate here but why, in every press release of companies who migrate to Linux, do they only mention licencing costs?"
Because that's a good, strong argument for moving over to Linux (I will pick on Linux in particular, because my previous comment was more aimed at the Operating System [kernel, whatever]) that a lot of the people that make the decisions, or read the press releases can actually *understand*.
Is an average shareholder, when reading a press release about a company migrating their computer systems away from Windows, really going to understand the idea of Linux being more secure/stable/better? I don't think so...yet.
Before the press releases move away from just pointing out the money side of things, we need more education in the general (and business) communities about what Linux actually is and does.
"In this environment of lean budgets and concerns about Microsoft's attention to customers, noncommercial software such as Linux and OpenOffice is seen as an interesting, 'good enough' or 'free' alternative."
Sorry Steve, but that's now quite how it is. Linux and OpenOffice are seen as Stable, Secure, *Better* alternatives.
So he suggesting that Microsoft's investment in the "health and growth of noncommercial software" and their "innovating in critical areas like engineering, manageability, compatibility and security" was a very good thing.
In what sick and twisted world is it bad that we don't have a single body innovating in those critical areas?
As far as I can see, having multiple groups, whose interest isn't only in making money, or "maximising shareholder value" is a very very good thing for *everybody*. Bring on the competition I say. Innovation can't (shouldn't?) be bought or paid for, it's driven by need, and if everyone is able and allowed to innovate, we *all* benefit.
And the investing in the health and growth of non-commercial software? Pleeeeeeeeease.
"Scribus is a Layout program for GNU/Linux®, similar to Adobe® PageMaker(TM), QuarkXPress(TM) or Adobe® InDesign(TM), except that it is published under the GNU GPL. Currently, it is still in its early stages of development, but rapidly maturing and very useable. Already, it has the ability to layout newsletters, create corporate stationery, small posters and other documents which need flexible layout and/or the ability to output to professional quality imagesetting equipment. You can do all the typical tasks like placing and rotating text and/or images on a page, specify manual kerning of type and much more. While the goals of the program are for ease of use and simple easy to understand tools, Scribus offers support for professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, easy PDF creation, Encapsulated Postscript import/export and creation of color separations. Graphic formats which can be placed include Ecapsulated Post Script (eps), Joint Photographic Experts Group (jpeg), Portable Network Graphics (png) and XPixMap(xpm)."
Now I know that there are plenty who evangelise Gentoo, and plenty who despise it, but I built a Gentoo machine for my grandparents a month or so ago and they haven't had a single problem.
I carefully explained exactly what was needed to upgrade and install software.
emerge sync emerge *software-package* to install software emerge -U world to upgrade the whole system
No dependency problems, and it's something that anybody is able to use.
Now, you did want a universal solution as opposed to something limited to one distribution. I'm sure the Debian people don't want to give up apt-get, and the way software works, I don't think it's *possible* to find a universal solution.
Linux is about freedom and choice, and there ARE options out there for those who are having difficulty installing software. The best thing to do is to point people in the right direction. Don't send them to RedHat, or similar, but think about installing Gentoo for them, and run through what to do, or another option is of course to give them a Knoppix CD, where everything is already right there for them.
I probably listened to the whole thing four or five times, and hearing/watching him speak really was a pleasure. There is a fair amount of humour that you can only pick up by hearing his voice.
He didn't move around at all, or fidget, and he was in complete and utter control the whole time.
If you saw the Darl speech, it was about as far from that as you can possibly get.
Slashdot Mirror
"I am playing devils advocate here but why, in every press release of companies who migrate to Linux, do they only mention licencing costs?"
:)
Because that's a good, strong argument for moving over to Linux (I will pick on Linux in particular, because my previous comment was more aimed at the Operating System [kernel, whatever]) that a lot of the people that make the decisions, or read the press releases can actually *understand*.
Is an average shareholder, when reading a press release about a company migrating their computer systems away from Windows, really going to understand the idea of Linux being more secure/stable/better? I don't think so...yet.
Before the press releases move away from just pointing out the money side of things, we need more education in the general (and business) communities about what Linux actually is and does.
But, that is happening, and will come in time.
"In this environment of lean budgets and concerns about Microsoft's attention to customers, noncommercial software such as Linux and OpenOffice is seen as an interesting, 'good enough' or 'free' alternative."
Sorry Steve, but that's now quite how it is. Linux and OpenOffice are seen as Stable, Secure, *Better* alternatives.
So he suggesting that Microsoft's investment in the "health and growth of noncommercial software" and their "innovating in critical areas like engineering, manageability, compatibility and security" was a very good thing.
:)
In what sick and twisted world is it bad that we don't have a single body innovating in those critical areas?
As far as I can see, having multiple groups, whose interest isn't only in making money, or "maximising shareholder value" is a very very good thing for *everybody*. Bring on the competition I say. Innovation can't (shouldn't?) be bought or paid for, it's driven by need, and if everyone is able and allowed to innovate, we *all* benefit.
And the investing in the health and growth of non-commercial software? Pleeeeeeeeease.
He's grasping at straws
Here's some "useful" info: Scribus - Layout program similar to Adobe PageMaker
Basically:
"Scribus is a Layout program for GNU/Linux®, similar to Adobe® PageMaker(TM), QuarkXPress(TM) or Adobe® InDesign(TM), except that it is published under the GNU GPL. Currently, it is still in its early stages of development, but rapidly maturing and very useable. Already, it has the ability to layout newsletters, create corporate stationery, small posters and other documents which need flexible layout and/or the ability to output to professional quality imagesetting equipment. You can do all the typical tasks like placing and rotating text and/or images on a page, specify manual kerning of type and much more. While the goals of the program are for ease of use and simple easy to understand tools, Scribus offers support for professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, easy PDF creation, Encapsulated Postscript import/export and creation of color separations. Graphic formats which can be placed include Ecapsulated Post Script (eps), Joint Photographic Experts Group (jpeg), Portable Network Graphics (png) and XPixMap(xpm)."
Hehe, something that Gentoo has solved ;)
Now I know that there are plenty who evangelise Gentoo, and plenty who despise it, but I built a Gentoo machine for my grandparents a month or so ago and they haven't had a single problem.
I carefully explained exactly what was needed to upgrade and install software.
emerge sync
emerge *software-package* to install software
emerge -U world to upgrade the whole system
No dependency problems, and it's something that anybody is able to use.
Now, you did want a universal solution as opposed to something limited to one distribution. I'm sure the Debian people don't want to give up apt-get, and the way software works, I don't think it's *possible* to find a universal solution.
Linux is about freedom and choice, and there ARE options out there for those who are having difficulty installing software. The best thing to do is to point people in the right direction. Don't send them to RedHat, or similar, but think about installing Gentoo for them, and run through what to do, or another option is of course to give them a Knoppix CD, where everything is already right there for them.
I can vouch for that too.
I probably listened to the whole thing four or five times, and hearing/watching him speak really was a pleasure. There is a fair amount of humour that you can only pick up by hearing his voice.
He didn't move around at all, or fidget, and he was in complete and utter control the whole time.
If you saw the Darl speech, it was about as far from that as you can possibly get.
MadMax.