I don't think we should kid ourselves - sure if its in the repositories then finding / installing programs can be a doddle. However, commercial / proprietary stuff (which I believe the guy was talking about) often doesn't come in your preferred package, with a weird installer or needs compiling. Fine if you're used to that and don't mind the occasional dip into the CLI, but its not consistent and its confusing for the newbie / windows migrant.
Linux may be great, but we should be honest about its very apparent downsides.
I use Linux (Mandriva 2005LE to be exact) as a home system and I am not particularly knowledgeable (relatively) tech wise. I started using it as an experiment after XP started crashing on me regularly (it was that, or another format / reinstall). Everything on my system is detected and works without having to search the internet for drivers (which I have to do with XP). Its an arse to configure and I miss some of the games, but its just learning thing anew - now that I am more familiar with things I really appreciate the stability and not having to think about security all the time. It also looks a lot nicer - put a screenshot up and people think you are showing off. I certainly don't have any problems with music or video files - in fact I have fewer apps to deal with. I rarely need use the computer with XP on it these days.
If you can't be arsed to learn then thats fine, but for god's sake - at least get rid of ME!
There's lots of ways of converting email archives from WindowsLinux - most of linux email apps seem to use mbox format anyway. I'm currently using XP with old emails collected whilst using Mandriva, Ubuntu and 98:) Oh and BT - I'll be willing to bet its as easy as typing urpmi bittorrent (or whatever package manager your distro uses) or just clicking on a couple of buttons and typing bittorrent into a search box. Alternatively, you could just use Azureus.
I run a smallish (300-400 unique visitors per day) football (soccer) site , who must rate pretty low on the techie side of things and Mozilla (presumably 99% Firefox) usage is at 36% and the vast majority of the rest using IE (just a couple of percent for Opera). All the main sites dealing with the club have been doing a bit of promotion for Firefox, though positive stuff and no nagging or little tricks to try and make people change. Generally the feedback has been very positive with people enquiring about and suggesting extensions to look at.
Did give OOo a little push too with the b3ta 2.0 release, but as (seemingly) the only linux user around there, I am allowed:)
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think we should kid ourselves - sure if its in the repositories then finding / installing programs can be a doddle. However, commercial / proprietary stuff (which I believe the guy was talking about) often doesn't come in your preferred package, with a weird installer or needs compiling. Fine if you're used to that and don't mind the occasional dip into the CLI, but its not consistent and its confusing for the newbie / windows migrant.
Linux may be great, but we should be honest about its very apparent downsides.
What about how 'critical' the bugs are rated or how long it takes for each to be fixed? Are the problems with ActiveX included?
You haven't heard how popular Konqueror has become?
I use Linux (Mandriva 2005LE to be exact) as a home system and I am not particularly knowledgeable (relatively) tech wise. I started using it as an experiment after XP started crashing on me regularly (it was that, or another format / reinstall). Everything on my system is detected and works without having to search the internet for drivers (which I have to do with XP). Its an arse to configure and I miss some of the games, but its just learning thing anew - now that I am more familiar with things I really appreciate the stability and not having to think about security all the time. It also looks a lot nicer - put a screenshot up and people think you are showing off. I certainly don't have any problems with music or video files - in fact I have fewer apps to deal with. I rarely need use the computer with XP on it these days.
If you can't be arsed to learn then thats fine, but for god's sake - at least get rid of ME!
There's lots of ways of converting email archives from WindowsLinux - most of linux email apps seem to use mbox format anyway. I'm currently using XP with old emails collected whilst using Mandriva, Ubuntu and 98 :) Oh and BT - I'll be willing to bet its as easy as typing urpmi bittorrent (or whatever package manager your distro uses) or just clicking on a couple of buttons and typing bittorrent into a search box. Alternatively, you could just use Azureus.
I run a smallish (300-400 unique visitors per day) football (soccer) site , who must rate pretty low on the techie side of things and Mozilla (presumably 99% Firefox) usage is at 36% and the vast majority of the rest using IE (just a couple of percent for Opera). All the main sites dealing with the club have been doing a bit of promotion for Firefox, though positive stuff and no nagging or little tricks to try and make people change. Generally the feedback has been very positive with people enquiring about and suggesting extensions to look at. Did give OOo a little push too with the b3ta 2.0 release, but as (seemingly) the only linux user around there, I am allowed :)