Re: Only 16 More Days to Go

Mike Hall - MVP wrote:
Lots want to be spoon fed. Computer users are like car owners. Most don't care about the inner workings. They just want it to start and do what they expect it to do or have been told that it will do.

Which is why it doesn't matter what's under the hood so to speak. If an organization decided to build a linux system to spoon feed the untechnical masses and did it well, it is quite possible that linux could do this job better than windows does.


The reason I singled out home finance was because the developers of the open source variants openly admitted that the programs on offer did not have all of the facilities of the Windows variants. The developers would seem to be more truthful than some avid fans of Linux. It would do better if software was on show as it has been for Windows. I know that boxed software is a little passé these days, but somebody looking at computers in a store will also wander down the software aisles too, and there is nothing obviously Linux amongst it all.

This is true, but considering most linux software is free, it would be awfully silly for those individuals/organizations that develop the free software to spend money putting a CD in a pretty box and shrink wrap, no?


The Windows OEMs also include MS Works in their packages which, while not being as advanced as OO3, admirably panders to those who want 'simple to use', and gets over the huge cost and complexity of MS Office. Only people building their own systems do not get the benefit of 'Works et al'.

Works...ugh! Again this is just my opinion and experience speaking, but Works is horrible! OOo files are so much easier to open than Works files, too! Yet I have to admit that when Joe Blow goes out and purchases a computer, if Works is the office suite that's installed, they will usually use it because it's already there.


And then, of course, there is the mighty Mac which is a nicely polished and very stylish alternative to a Windows PC. Even though more expensive, the Mac has made more ground re new sales than Linux. A good proportion of software sold in stores will also run on Macs. It says so on the boxes. One sees 'Mac compatible' on the sides of new hardware boxes, printers, scanners, webcams etc too.

I have my own reasons to dislike Macs, but what you say about them is true.


There are no free lunches. Software like OO owes much to personnel within empires like IBM and Sun. Programs suitable for family computers are not in the picture for companies like these, and solo programmers typing away beyond the witching hour are not capable of producing polished stuff suitable for attaching a price tag in a store.

Maybe Alias can learn to program and surprise us all.. :-)


Whether OOo was designed for home machines or not, in my experience, it seems to fit better than Office 2007 so far.

--
"Software is like sex, it's better when it's free."
- Linus Torvalds

DRM and unintended consequences:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/security/?p=435&tag=nl.e101
.

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