gmac Posted July 29, 2004 Report Share Posted July 29, 2004 I think there are two almost distinct markets. 1) Gamers and music buffs that want PC's to play games or download music. 2) Business users that are looking inceasingly for more sophisticated computers to do more & more. Microsoft I think are increasingly losing the plot as they fight to keep the status quo and are forgetting about the end user. Bill gates was slow realising the potential of the internet and then wipes out the competition by giving the browser away. They missed the significance of music downloading and compete by designimg programmes that don't work with rival media players rather than by offering a quality product. (hey I'm no expert this is just my opinion). They miss the point about gaming and bring out X-Box expecting people just o buy it because it was theirs Their office suite is crap and are trying to get people to use office by making it incompatable with rivals. Every time they upgrade office and make it unworkable with previous versions they antagonise business users needlessly and make them look round for alternatives. Its all right for home users they can make do, businesses can't and it is annoying! How many do you think this has pissed off? http://www.pdfzone.com/resources/tips_tech...Fzone_tips.html Businesses need some kind of common file format for sending documants that is accepted everywhere. Good for microsoft lets screw things up, its either deliberate or just thoughtless. That same website has articles on MS and how anti PDF it seems to be. Again I am no expert I just want something that works. need an internet browser, an email client, a media player and some cool games that work! open office is all that i personally would need, for anything i want to do, so i wouldn't need koffice or gnome office. So do all businesses. They also need more sophistacation that a simple spreadsheet so you find yourself learning how to set up databases and use them to control the business. A lot of people don't realise they are doing it but anyone sending out invoices or mailing clients is using one. I can spend £100 per month for the licence for a tailored client control system and be tied to the provider or do it myself. which I ended up doing, not because I enjoy it but it's an integral part of my business. Same with any kind of forward planning system. filofax man has gone the way of the dodo. There is sometimes a need to be able to do powerpoint presentations, sure you can get them done for you but for a small business thats all extra expense, and IT consultants want to overelaborate to justify their fees. (OK I'm a cynic no offence intended to any IT consultants reading this, since this is a linux forum you are obviously not rip off merchants) Mobile technology. Not a gimmick, I will be using this kind of stuff in another year or so as an essential part of what I do. In myu particular industry my competitors who don't get to grip will bedome increasingly unprofitable and lose out. My point in all this ramble is that wherever Linux goes being as versatile as possible is what will let it survive. Think of it in evolutionary terms, the generalist always has a better chance if things are changing. Microsoft has stopped adapting and is now reactive rather than proactive and is more interested in locking people in than providing. Bloat may be bad but you can always thin down. (Some bloat in scanning programmes would be good.) Things are changing very rapidly, ten years ago this forum could not have existed. That article I used above- MS just srewed an essential part of what he does how likely is it that the indivual is going to interested in an operating system that doesn't present him with those kind of problems? Or a nice alternative to MS office that inclides a pdf writer like star office. I get the impression that a lot of users of this forum don't get the point about office suites because they don't use them. MS office is microsofts main source of profit, if they lose that to a rival they are screwed. Forunately they are rarely as trapped as they think but still the mental prison is every bit as real a a physcial one. It's a comfortable prison as well but MS keep spoiling the comfort zone and don't even know they are doing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted August 1, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2004 (edited) somewhere earlier (too lazy to search that post now ;) ), it was said, that we should enable more install-options. i thought a bit about that thing, and here are my ideas (each of these package selections should have a "advanced select" button, adding some options for individual installations) remember: the basic idea behind this is to give a working area that does not need/install automatically a default desktop: minimal graphic install: gives the user only a minimal operating system that only uses the command line basic graphic install: uses only lightweight windowmanagers like icewm, only one app per task installed, apps are reduced to a office-desktop. normal graphic install: uses kde/gnome/... and adds some bloat like media-players codecs etc. full graphic install: uses all the eyecandy available (like: superkaramba/gdesklets/qt-gtk-engine) remember: every of these options should be able to be modified to personal tastes. the "conventional selection" of software packages should still be there (office/server/development/...), but as a second stage. so the installation way could be: starting cd-install selecting partitions selecting graphic install type selecting software packages selecting languages,... so what do you think? is it usable or a rather stupid idea? :) p:s: in terms of office applications: why don't the office-apps use e.g. .rtf files as default? they are fully compatible with mac- and windows-office suites and are smaller than .doc files (although a bit bigger than .swx files). Edited August 1, 2004 by arctic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkelve Posted August 1, 2004 Report Share Posted August 1, 2004 (edited) so what do you think? is it usable or a rather stupid idea? :) p:s: in terms of office applications: why don't the office-apps use e.g. .rtf files as default? they are fully compatible with mac- and windows-office suites and are smaller than .doc files (although a bit bigger than .swx files). <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think it's a *great* idea! Especially for those trying out Linux in order to install it on older systems, or speed freaks, ... since you should only have to go through installation once, it makes sense to offer the most sensible options at installation time. But don't forget that some distributions only use ONE Desktop Environment; e.g. Xandros and Linspire use exclusively KDE. RTF-files are a lot better than .doc, but not totally problem-free. And if I remember correctly, do not have all the "functionality" present in a .doc or .swx document. Plus the program that really dictates what filetype to use is... yup, M$ word. In my opinion, it would be way better for the "free" (underdog) text editors to settle on an open XML format and use it by default... e.g. Abiword, OOO, Kword and GnomeWord (or whatever it's called) all save to an open XML format by default. At the very least there will be a "standard" in the OSS world then! And for people who only know word, perhaps make some small applications -or plugins- to at least be able to "read" the file. E.g. you could say: "see here's my document. If you have problems opening it, install this viewer program/plugin". I know it's stupid to install yet another program in order to be able to view/use a file format, but M$ sure ain't gonna use an OPEN format and you cannot expect people to install a complate OpenOffice, or even AbiWord, in order to be able to read it. Edited August 1, 2004 by Darkelve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted August 2, 2004 Report Share Posted August 2, 2004 I think this is almost exactly whats needed it illustrates HOW inux can be everything to different people without screwing the other half... No real reason it cant suggest a config.... like if CPU < 2000 bogomips and/or mem < 378MB and/or .... then explain to user that a lighter DM will be better, choose from flux ICEWM and/or allow override for KDE/Gnome... This would the suggest say SAIG office suite or Abiword over OpenOffice etc. The whole point is preventing noobies from having to decide and letting them know that a less resource intensive alternative was chosen for their config... Some of these are especially suited to Mandrake as an RPM distro... since it has urpmi the absolute minimal install can exploit this better than say Suse/FC where you need stuff to be on the cdrom or get apt4rpm working... This is one of those things i do witrh Debian installs ... just make a minimal then apt-get everything ... and its also feasible with mandrake but I wouldnt want to attempt it with FC or Suse... The main thing is there is nothing wrong with eyekandy in the right places. It can be downright ugly in the wrong places though ... and damn well annoying in others. I like Jukeboxes in certain bars but in some they are just outa place ... and pinball machines are great but outa place in a 200 year old bar... it doesnt mean i dont like jukleboxes/pinball machines it just means I like the option to go somewhere more relaxing... Last night I was at a friends place in the country, his parent run a campsite and the bar just about has electricity :D its mainly lit by candles and no music is needed since nico can pick up his violin ...etc. and fill the small bar without a electric pickup.... Im not saying Id choose this as my only bar but it was really relaxing last night .... :D and its somehow appropraite to the setting. I find KDE /Gnome/Open Office the same... On my xbox a very simple DM is all thats required, in fact the myth front end is probably enough :D .. but that doesnt mean I dont want openoffice on my AMD64 :D the trick is I think to give choice/choice and more choice... its one thing I like about gentoo... sure the speed and optimisation et al but really gentoo is about not forcing choices... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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