[ale] Dominating the Linux Desktop

[tfreeman at intel.digichem.net]

On Sat, 2 Aug 2003, Jonathan Rickman wrote:

> On Saturday 02 August 2003 13:16, tfreeman at intel.digichem.net wrote:
> 
> > I hope not, although probably not in the fashion most people think. I
> > hope the Linux/FLOSS/whatever desktop stabilizes with three or four major
> > offerings; for example blackbox, gnome, KDE, with the developers able to
> > build interopperation into the majors as an option. While I'm sure this
> > will complicate many people's lives, I like options and choice. This also
> > means that the desktop will have multiple sources of ideas/innovation.
> 
> I certainly don't want to see freedom of choice disappear. I was mainly 

Sorry - didn't mean to imply you (or anyone else here) favored reduced 
freedom of choice/disappearing freedom of choice.

> referring to the corporate setting. I think KDE offers the best options for 
> deployment in a large environment. In that type of setting, the ability to 
> mimic the windows UI is important...at least initially. Personally, I have 
> KDE configured more like CDE, but it seems to do well in either role. This 
> would enable a transition from the somewhat restrictive windows environment 
> to the more flexible environment traditionally provided on unix at a pace 
> the average user could easily handle. Gnome seems to be more focused on 
> providing the best traditional unix environment possible, while KDE seems 
> to be a bit more focused on ease of use for those not used to that 
> environment. I guess what I'm driving at is that KDE seems to be a good 
> catch all environment where all users can find common ground. Whether 
> you're coming from CDE, Windows, or Mac...KDE will provide a familiar 
> interface. The same cannot be said for Gnome IMHO, although I do think the 
> Gnome environment is an excellent choice for those who are capable of 
> taking care of themselves without handholding.

What I _don't_ want to see happen is segmenting the Linux desktop into 
groups like "bussiness office", "home applications", "small business" or 
into "lightweight", middle weight", and "heavy weight" as alternative. 
Part of my concern is the trend through the past decade of MS's growing 
dominance in the office pretty much meant that most people 
expected/demanded the same thing at home and elsewhere. Since almost the 
only way to get the same thing at home as the office is to use the same 
(exact) software...

I've seen too many people say (and mean sincerely) "I cann't use that 
<word processor, spreadsheet, whatever> because I've never been trained on 
it". Give me a word processor, or even an editor and formatter, I can 
pretty much use it. I can do something with pretty much any spreadsheet 
you hand me (not much - I don't like them). The reason why, of course, is 
that I've _used_ many different systems over the years, and that is part 
of the culture I _hope_ the Linux desktop can retain. Because of 
experience, I've needed to learn patterns of applications, not specific 
applications. 

YMMV of course.

-- 
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If you think Education is expensive
Try Ignorance
                   Author Unknown
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