IT Job creations... IT job losses?

[Justin Zygmont]

it's so sad to hear that, I love XFCE.  I used it for years, and cant 
stand anything else, especially with that pitiful X button in the corner):
Actually, I see you can get that in XFCE too, what's this world coming to?


On Sat, 1 Nov 2003, CLIFFORD ILKAY wrote:

> At 10:49 01/11/2003 -0500, JoeHill wrote:
> >On Sat, 1 Nov 2003 14:08:53 +0200 (IST)
> >"Peter L. Peres" <plp-ysDPMY98cNQDDBjDh4tngg at public.gmane.org> uttered:
> >
> > > The one irk I have is the phrase 'linux is not ready for the desktop'.
> >
> >Absolutement. This is the FUD I deal with every time I tell someone
> >about installing Linux on their desktop. They are so brainwashed, they
> >simply cannot believe that most distros out there will boot into a
> >*complete* and *useable* GUI, with many choices of mail, web, office,
> >chat, and amusement software already installed. No hassles with
> >immediately having to go to Windows Update for the 2 hour patch process,
> >no downloading of anti-everything software, no running to the
> >software shop for Orifice or other productivity apps, *it just works*.
> >
> >Then when you try and explain that you don't even have just one choice
> >for your "GUI", there are literally *dozens*, many of them, like XFCE,
> >very user-friendly even for newbs, they are shocked beyond belief. And
> >*then* when you tell them that their "ancient" P3 450 will run like a
> >wild animal, unlike that bloated XP "upgrade"...well, you've all seen
> >the facial expression...;-)
> 
> The average user that I encounter is impressed more by eye candy than 
> technical details. I think KDE has the best eye candy of all the desktop 
> managers but it is quite resource intensive. Someone using KDE on a P3/450 
> is not going to notice much, if any, improvement over Windows XP on the 
> same hardware. That is not to say that they would not like using it but 
> rather that we have to moderate our hyperbole somewhat. Claiming that a 
> P3/450 is going to run Linux like a "wild animal" is a dubious strategy 
> since it will set up unrealistic expectations. Trying to sell them on XFCE 
> I think is a lost cause. CDE and all those other user interfaces never 
> gained wide acceptance for a good reason. They were, and still are, ugly 
> user interfaces that only geeks and zealots could love. Trying to sell 
> users that I deal with on XFCE over Windows XP would be like getting them 
> to stop using MS Word in favour of LyX or stop using Eudora for the 
> "elegance" of Mutt.
> 
> OpenOffice is functional but it is not yet up to the standards of usability 
> of MS Office. MS Office is more polished and so it should be given the vast 
> sums of money MS has poured into it. A fussy user may not like OO because 
> it seems to take an eon to launch, it does not offer the ability to do 
> things like changing the range of a sum function by dragging the box that 
> covers the range, etc. Granted, Microsoft plays tricks to make Office more 
> responsive by pre loading many of the DLLs that Office uses when Windows is 
> started so that when a user launches Excel, it just appears as opposed to 
> grinding away for 22 seconds (I timed it) before the user sees a 
> spreadsheet. Koffice looks promising because it is tightly integrated with 
> KDE and it does not seem to suffer the same performance problems as OO but, 
> up to version 1.2.1 is not ready for prime time yet. It lacks many features 
> and has too many bugs to be usable. I use OO and MS Office on a regular 
> basis and both have their strengths and weaknesses. For the moment, I think 
> MS Office still has an edge but OO is catching up rapidly.
> 
> So, is Linux ready for the desktop? My answer is "It depends." For the 
> average user who just types letters, uses e-mail, uses a browser, and maybe 
> uses spreadsheets, using decent hardware, sure. We have replaced green 
> screen terminals, and Windows and Mac OS desktops with Linux desktops and 
> no one has gone back but, we have been careful to not oversell Linux.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Clifford Ilkay
> Dinamis Corporation
> 3266 Yonge Street, Suite 1419
> Toronto, Ontario
> Canada M4N 3P6
> 
> Tel: 416-410-3326 
> 
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