Linux is ok, since its free, but how about a OS that saves you money?

[Gordon]

Oh yeah....how about access?

Open Ofice 2 has a database that is the equivalent of Access.

 

[dogsBollix]

Bull. No way you are talking about an uninformed computer user. Windows
isn't nearly clean and simple enough for a five-year-old to do anything
meaningful. Mac far far outstrips Windows in being simple enough for an
uninformed user, and I see no reason two or three of the Linux distros
wouldn't be just as easy as Windows for a real newcomer.

that may be true but
the uninformed 5 year old is taught to use windows by the teacher who only
knows (a little bit) of windows
and continues to use windows products because ms almost gives it to them.
why does ms do this ?
because once hooked the child becomes "addicted" and will find it very
hard later in life to use another os.
ask any jesuit. he will tell you about the power of brainwashing children.

me ? i can just about switch on a mac and maybe start the browser but not
much more because everything is in the wrong place
oh and btw IE for the mac doesn't work the same way as IE for windows.
bummer :-(

dB

 

[Thomas Lauer]

The overwhelming majority of computer users have never heard of Open
Office.

If OOo were as good as some OOo people believe it is, many more users
would have heard of it by now. And many more would use it.

Never underestimate the power of word of mouth.

It is very much more than 'good enough' for the majority of 'office' users.

Technically I fully agree with the 'good enough'. But as to surrounding
matters, like support and so on... no way. Try to post a bug, for one
thing.

OOo seems to be a tragedy-in-the-making: such a capable application and
handled with such ineptness.

 

[Mitch]

that may be true but
the uninformed 5 year old is taught to use windows by the teacher who only
knows (a little bit) of windows
and continues to use windows products because ms almost gives it to them.
why does ms do this ?

It's always been clear why, and it still works pretty well. Schools
just don't have enough opportunities to be selective.
Various heads at Apple just have not been able to make those deals in
the same way. They've made a few great BIG deals. Education discounts
have often been decent.
But part of the problem with schools is reticent parents, who insist
that good education means working with Windows because it is so common
in today's workplace. That is a stupid perspective, because nothing
kids use in schools is likely to be very relevant when they get a job.
What schools should do is expose kids to as much as they can, so they
understand the scale and variations in technical development. Now THAT
would be useful to their future.

because once hooked the child becomes "addicted" and will find it very
hard later in life to use another os.
ask any jesuit. he will tell you about the power of brainwashing children.

You're right, in principle (I think you have overestimated how attached
the OS becomes in school). Whatever someone learns first is likely to
seem the simpler or more natural just because it is a bit more
familiar.

me ? i can just about switch on a mac and maybe start the browser but not
much more because everything is in the wrong place
oh and btw IE for the mac doesn't work the same way as IE for windows.

Haven't noticed; it looked very similar a couple years back, and as far
as I knew it had all the same features, excepting ActiveX. But I
thought the Mac development team used the same HTML rendering engine,
and that's the meat.

 

[kenny]

thanks.... thats good to know

Open Office is free to download and has package called Base
which is access equivalent.
http://www.openoffice.org
And when you run it, you can open documents that micoshaft can't
open like its own legacy formats!
Of course you are free to try it out, there is nothing to pay EVER!
So you know, companies could wait for the BSA to come knocking
and fine every admin personally as well the company huge amounts of
money for license violations, or the company can just abandon
windope crap altogether and switch to Open Office and avoid the
threat of a BSA audit.



In other words, you are an astroturfer astroturfing on behalf of
micoshaft asking asking micoshafty sales questions on open
internet channels.

Well, listen up asstroturfer,
People are free to choose whatever they want.
You trying to be persuasive in forcing people to buy
windope crap may have worked a long time ago when
there were no alternatives. But today there is choice, and millions
upon millions of users have made the choice for open source
and free software. There are huge developer communities
that are funded by its users to make alternatives where
your precious micoshaft can't cut it no more.



It is the best.
It works on so many more platforms than windopes can ever hope
to catch up on now.


Taken straight out of the micoshaft astroturfing campaign book.
Try Mepis for example and see how much of a lie these things are!
http://www.livecdlist.com
What I dislike most about asstroturfers is they are funded
by money stolen from charities. The usa seems to have made
charities working for donors acceptable allowing them to steal
money from cradles and kids mouths. Big business has made sure
that charities don't work for charitable causes, they only work
for money, and for donors, to hide the money and hide the donors.

 

[kenny]

Yes.. thanks, I didnt know that...
I might need it...

 

[kenny]

Indeed, in order to be where Gates is for so long, it means he has
tremendous
business and money making abilities. It was not only luck.
Luck opens the door, but after that... its up to your skills.
Most of the time you have to fight with daemons to stay up there.

Perhaps. But Gates was in a totally different position, too.

Gates was positioned (because of the IBM deal) to take
advantage of his position when the architecture opened up to
clones.

That's my point: Gates wasn't just "positioned (because of the IBM
deal)" -- he *positioned himself* with the IBM deal. That took
foresight.

It gave him a unique opportunity to lead the hardware
industry by deciding what technologies would be adopted and
which ones would be allowed to work under the DOS system
everybody was expecting to have to use.

Precisely: that's the foresight bit that I was talking about -- he
didn't just stumble into that "unique opportunity"; he *created*
that unique opportunity.

-snip-

And that's why you can't say he was better than everyone else
at doing this -- only he had this opportunity!

Not "better", just "smarter" -- because he saw the opportunity, and
proceeded to corner it.
[/QUOTE]

 

[kenny]

Dependency trees... another user friendly "feature" of linux!

LOL

 

[kenny]

That is a stupid perspective, because nothing

kids use in schools is likely to be very relevant when they get a job.

Gee... that is smart.. why dont they learn one of the 500 forgotten african
dialects,
instead of learning a language that may give them a job, and food on the
table
later on , in their lives.

 

[Tudman Todmorden]

KENNY, HOW ABOUT YOU SUCKING *DICK*?!!! YOU ****ING TROLL

This message came through one or more anonymous remailers.
The sender is unknown and untraceable.

 

[kenny]

I am waiting for a developer team to come up, that will make a version of
linux
that will be very user friendly as easy as windows. I do believe that this
will happen. Just like firefox came up and rivaled IE.

 

[Rick]

If OOo were as good as some OOo people believe it is, many more users
would have heard of it by now. And many more would use it.

... which is why its user base is growing.

Never underestimate the power of word of mouth.


Technically I fully agree with the 'good enough'. But as to surrounding
matters, like support and so on... no way. Try to post a bug, for one
thing.

OOo seems to be a tragedy-in-the-making: such a capable application and
handled with such ineptness.

It is not being handled with ineptness.

 

[Rick]

thanks.... thats good to know

What's good to know, top poster?

 

[Guest]

I am waiting for a developer team to come up, that will make a version of
linux
that will be very user friendly as easy as windows. I do believe that this
will happen. Just like firefox came up and rivaled IE.

It already *is* that way, cretinous top-poster

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Lin=F8nut?=]

After takin' a swig o' grog, Thomas Lauer belched out this bit o' wisdom:

If OOo were as good as some OOo people believe it is, many more users
would have heard of it by now. And many more would use it.

Never underestimate the power of word of mouth.

I mention it to a lot of people. You know what? As far as I can tell,
they've already got MS Office loaded, either from an employer's license
or simply copying it from a friend.

Our local oldies soccer club always sends out the rosters and schedules
in Excel format. As far as I know, I'm the only person who complains.

The truth is that, for most people, there's no compelling reason to
change.

However, OpenOffice is obviously being used, as the project is now on
version 2, so word of mouth is working effectively enough.

Technically I fully agree with the 'good enough'. But as to surrounding
matters, like support and so on... no way. Try to post a bug, for one
thing.

OOo seems to be a tragedy-in-the-making: such a capable application and
handled with such ineptness.

I suspect you are a bumbler. I don't see an easy way to file a bug
report (although I've just now registered), but the site shows support
links out the wazoo.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Lin=F8nut?=]

After takin' a swig o' grog, kenny belched out this bit o' wisdom:

I am waiting for a developer team to come up, that will make a version
of linux that will be very user friendly as easy as windows. I do
believe that this will happen. Just like firefox came up and rivaled
IE.

What makes you think Windows is "user-friendly"?

The only thing remotely friendly about it is how it welcomes new
installs with open arms, whether you want it to or not.

 

[Marten Kemp]

What makes you think Windows is "user-friendly"?

The only thing remotely friendly about it is how it welcomes new
installs with open arms, whether you want it to or not.

May add this to my .sig file?

--
-- Marten Kemp
(Fix name and ISP to reply)
-=-=-
.... Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold
weather becomes frozen, even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.
--Leonardo Da Vinci, painter, engineer, musician, and scientist (1452-1519)
* TagZilla 0.059 * http://tagzilla.mozdev.org

 

[Thomas Lauer]

After takin' a swig o' grog, Thomas Lauer belched out this bit o' wisdom:


I mention it to a lot of people. You know what? As far as I can tell,
they've already got MS Office loaded, either from an employer's license
or simply copying it from a friend.

Our local oldies soccer club always sends out the rosters and schedules
in Excel format. As far as I know, I'm the only person who complains.

The truth is that, for most people, there's no compelling reason to
change.

Very true. And that specific sort of user unfriendliness the OOo geeks
love to cultivate does nothing at all to help the product with the
masses -- the masses are by definition not geeks.

However, OpenOffice is obviously being used, as the project is now on
version 2, so word of mouth is working effectively enough.

Hm... let's say it's working. The "effectively enough" is debatable.

I suspect you are a bumbler.

So be it. Some people would rather be happy bumblers who know their
short ropes than driven geeks who have not entirely realised that
computers are, for most people (the famous masses), simply a tool that
must function as efficiently and smoothly as possible.

YMMV, of course.

 

[Gordon]

Dependency trees... another user friendly "feature" of linux!

Not these days - shows how much you REALLY know. Using Synaptic on Debian
sorts it all for you with ONE mouse click. And that's just on one distro.
others are the same.

 

[Gordon]

Indeed, in order to be where Gates is for so long, it means he has
tremendous
business and money making abilities. It was not only luck.

No you're right. It wasn't luck, it was mostly highly dubious (and in some
cases downright illegal) business practices.