On Fri, Nov 28, 2003 at 10:03:58AM +0000, Graham Trott wrote:
I think we get onto dangerous ground claiming that Linux is "better than" Windows - or vice versa. One isn't better than the other; they're each
I wasn't actually saying that Linux is better than windows, my point was related to why GnuWinII is good. Perhaps my message came across garbled, anyhow if you are going to try and convert people to Linux but tell them that "ummm, no it isn't better, ummm, its equivalent" they will give you a really funny look. :)
(try finding a DVD copier for Linux) but requires you to restart the machine
Funny you should say that, the easiest bit of hardware I have got working recently was my DVD burner, i just removed the cd burner and put the dvd burner in its place and it just works.
Things are improving fast and in many areas the gap is closing, but Linux on the desktop hasn't got anywhere near the critical mass needed to attract commercial software writers to port their products and make the system a viable alternative to Windows for the average Joe.
Depends on what the average Joe wants really, most only want "word" (openoffice.org) "internet" (mozilla) "messenger" (Gaim) and to be honest Linux on the desktop is nice and friendly already, especially fedora, I would say that fedora is much easier on the average Joe with a new computer than windows is. (I am planning a real world experiment on this very soon :)) This is why I was evangelising GnuWinII ( http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/en/index.html ) because it includes openoffice and mozilla and lots of other bits out of the box, check it out! if you have people who are devoted to windows and are not ready for Linux get them to checkout GnuWinII!
The current weak points are installation (although installing windows isn't friendly, it is an evil process the only reason most people don't know this is they buy windows preinstalled) and hardware support (which is a pain in the bum to be honest, my main stressful bits of hardware are my Nvidia graphics card (woo, look a manufacturer supported bit of hardware and look how it doesn't work....) my USB webcam (has semi official support via a non-free kernel module) and my new a4 graphics tablet that i bought from aldi for 30 quid yesterday (this needs a recompile of X-windows with a patch it seems but the support it new so should be merged soonish).
Adam