[NCLUG] Re: Thoughts on Linux Users

[Chad Perrin]

On Mon, Nov 12, 2007 at 05:25:18PM -0700, John L. Bass wrote:
> Daniel Herrington <nclug at iherr.com> writes:
> > On Nov 11, 2007, at 11:13 PM, Paul Hummer wrote:
> > > Every time I use a Mac or a Windows machine, I wish I had something  
> > > as robust as either yum or apt.
> > I'm not sure what you mean, as robust as yum or apt. On the Mac I  
> > install a new application by just dragging the application to the  
> > Applications folder.
> 
> Applications on a Mac are generally a monolith, where they are typically
> many files on Windows and Linux. RPM/Apt simply isn't necessary on a
> Mac for typical applications (their are exceptions).

The benefits of a comprehensive software management system go well beyond
mere dependency handling.  I have nearly twenty thousand pieces of
software at my fingertips in the FreeBSD ports tree, for instance, and
it's organized and offered to me in a manner that resolutely refuses to
confuse me.  I wonder if the average MS Windows user is even capable of
imagining the benefits of such a system without experiencing it
first-hand, at great length.


> 
> > >> 2. I'm still frustrated when trying to browse certain websites  
> > >> with the Linux version of Firefox. For example, Best Buy and  
> > >> Circuit City have menus that are supposed to pop down in front of  
> > >> the flash animation, but instead they just disappear behind the  
> > >> flash.
> > > Just tried this, and the both work for me.
> > 
> > I just installed Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop, Firefox 2.0.0.8, and Adobe  
> > Shockwave Flash 9.0 r48. I still have cut-off menus behind the flash  
> > animations on bestbuy.com and circuitcity.com. What versions are you  
> > using? Am I the only one seeing this?
> 
> I've seen this on a number of sites, where the flash object on Firefox
> extends outside it's bounderies and covers other page objects. It's common
> for ads on a number of sites.

Firefox drives me up the wall for a number of reasons, regardless of OS
platform.  I'm largely able to ignore these frustrations with the simple
thought that they are less severe than the frustrations I encounter with
any other GUI browser I've used, though.  It's the best of a bad breed,
as far as I'm concerned.


> 
> > > Thunderbird opens documents in OpenOffice just fine here.
> > 
> > My experience has been that tables, diagrams, and page breaks rarely  
> > transfer correctly from Word to OpenOffice. Maybe my experience is  
> > uncommon?
> 
> Not uncommon at all. There are a number of documents that render so badly
> as to be unreadable, as portions of the text are missing ... again forcing
> firing up a Win XP box to view or print them.

On the other hand, this is not a failure of the platform at all.  It's a
failure of various software vendors and project maintainers to provide
useful interoperability.  I'm pretty sure you can recognize where this
thought leads, with regard to whose fault that is.

Of course, fault isn't necessarily the salient point.  Convenience is,
more often than not.  I'd still run up against such problems, even if
using MS Windows, though -- since I'd avoid MS Office just as diligently
there as I do on FreeBSD.


> 
> There is a cost for "close enough".

I find there's a cost to "too close", too -- often bound up in the
problems of increased time spent in system maintenance and work-arounds
for productivity hurdles.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
awj @reddit: "The terms never and always are never always true."