[ale] Notes from Jun 19th meeting

[Geoffrey Myers]

On Jun 20, 2008, at 8:18 PM, Jim Kinney wrote:

>
>
> On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 2:20 PM, Geoffrey  
> <lists at serioustechnology.com> wrote:
> Daniel Howard wrote:
>
> > Another key Windoz app brought up as a barrier to transitioning to  
> Linux
> > was PrintShop.  However, if teacher's PCs are still Windoz, then  
> they
> > should be able to print banners, science projects, etc. without any
> > problem.  I did some playing around and found a great way to do  
> banners
> > with OpenOffice and Adobe Reader: Open Impress (presentation), set  
> page
> > width to say 22 inches (or multiples of 11 inches), and then make a
> > banner using graphics, fonts, and word art ("Fontwork") gallery, and
> > then copy the entire page.  Then open the spreadsheet Calc and set  
> the
> > page format to landscape, and then paste the image into the  
> spreadsheet.
> >   You can then print the banner and Calc will automatically tile  
> it so
> > you can cut and paste the individual pages together.  Geoffrey,  
> see what
> > your wife thinks of that approach compared to PrintShop, and point  
> out
> > that anyone can do this at home as well as at school, students and
> > teachers without requiring that they all purchase PrintShop.
>
> I know what she's going to say.  Why go through all that when she  
> can do
> it much more straight forward with Printshop.  I know this woman, been
> married 23 years. ;)  Thanks for your efforts, but it's got to be
> something that's going to be much less painful.  Ideally, getting it  
> to
> run under Wine or Crossover office will be the right solution.  I'll
> likely revisit this in the near future.  I'll keep folks updated.
>
> So this person can only buy one car because a different car would  
> have the dash controls differently and thus they would be able to  
> drive.

Hardly a accurate comparison.  Let's see, let's see, I'll sell your  
durango and you can drive my truck.  Oh, there's not that much  
difference.  The truck is a 5 speed and doesn't have power steering.   
Oh, and you'll have to haul the band kids around in the bed of the  
truck when you go to band camp.

> Granted this is likely a person very close so I'll try and not  
> royally be an ass, but, come on! This is EDUCATION!!! IF THE  
> TEACHERS CAN'T LEARN HOW CAN THEY TEACH!!!

You are being an ass.  Look at the difference of using an existing  
tool that works, she's used to, verses using Impress, Adobe Reader,  
Calc.  Come on, do you really think that is an comparable solution?   
Here, stop using this one application and use these three to do the  
same thing.  Now that's efficient.

Give me a break.  I simply tried to provide honest feedback.

The other side of the fact is, it's not only banners.  Banners,  
certificates, Newsletters, the list goes on.  Return to reality when  
you want to really have a reasonable discussion.

> </mostly ending rant>
>
> The reason it can't done with Printshop is that application doesn't  
> run on the new Mac. They will accept that. But tell them it's a  
> Linux box and they can't run their windows software, the sky just  
> falls down.

It's obvious you don't understand the issue at all.

> The important point here that I need to make is so many people have  
> been sold on the "have a need, buy a software package to solve it"  
> mentality they don't see that the software world has changed around  
> them.

If you want real acceptance of Linux, you can't shove it down their  
throats by suggesting a solution that requires three different  
applications to do what a single application does now.  Would you even  
suggest such a thing to a REAL client?  I sure as hell wouldn't.

> Printshop will run fine on a windows terminal server for those  
> people that just can't get by with out. Linux thin clients can run  
> rdesktop nidely and let those that must, run remote microsoft crap.

Fare enough, that's certainly a more reasonable solution.

> But OK. What are they printing banners for anyway? _HOW_ do they  
> print banner? Do they actually have an ink jet printer that supports  
> roll paper?

Yes, she prints then on a printer that handles continues feed paper.

--
Later Geoffrey