Interesting Article - Linux users going back to $M

[Victor Odhner]

Alpha Zenon Sanchez wrote:
> Any thoughts on this particular article?
> http://members.optusnet.com.au/~knigits/articles/switched_back.html

Well, I'm not switching back -- I've not yet made it to the
Linux desktop.  I go there sporadically, continually trying
to make it work for me.  I will keep trying out of cussedness,
but I don't feel success coming real soon.  And if I want
to actually accomplish desktop type work, I go back to
Win98.  (I will never go to XP, and probably will never
bother with Win2k.)

Yes, Technomage:  some people don't know how to operate
the Linux desktop.  Where do I sign up to learn the
basics?  Where do I learn the UNIVERSAL, CONSISTENT RULES
as to how things SHALL WORK on this desktop?  And which
20% of the products are going to follow these rules?
Having the Windows desktop standardized by megalomaniacs
has had its benefit:  Bill made the trains run on time.
In the Linux world, we still can't agree on those basic
standards, and attempts to mimic Windows functionality
are inconsistent.

I think luck really does have a lot to do with it.
I'm cursed when it comes to trying to install anything.
Also, the willingness to revert to the command line
frequently to poke around and make things happen is a
sine qua non of this business.

Trying to set up X is a disaster.  Windows had no problem
understanding my obscure monitor, but I don't have it right
with X yet.  Now I'm stuck at very high resolution, and
using Ctrl-Alt-Keypad-Minus to zoom in when I have to.
Evolution has a menu item to change text size, and nothing
happens when I use it.

The browsers all suck.  I was pleased when Galeon came up
with good Chinese text which I need for a current project,
but Galeon keeps bombing out on me.  I can't find
Konqueror, where is it?  Not in my KDE menus.  If I need
to install it, I know that simply won't succeed:  installs
never work for me.  Never.  Always some stupid dependency,
often not discovered till I try to run.

X simply does not handle copy and paste "right".
The Macintosh and Windows worlds agree how this goes,
but I will have to totally retrain myself if nobody
can point me to the option for "normal" clipboard
operations:  The fact that I can't highlight a destination
area for a paste without clobbering the clipboard is
a show stopper.  Different programs handle copying
and pasting differently, and several seem to have
their own private clipboards.  Often I can copy from
program A to program C via program B -- is that wierd?
And someone pointed me to an extra program to help
remember things that go through the clipboard:  this is
NOT integration, people.  And I don't think it works
under Gnome.  X will have to have an option to emulate
Mac/Windows clipboard behavior before it can join the
broader desktop community.  I think the only issue is
when the clipboard is to be overwritten, but that is
maddening.

Using RPMs via the Gnorpm interface just isn't there yet.
So you still have to be a command line guru to make this
work.  I spent two hours on the phone with a very smart
Windows systems engineer recently, trying to talk him
through some installs under Red Hat 7.  We learned much,
but the outcome was failure.  And he was trying to prove
to himself that Linux has a viable desktop, while I and
the cookbooks we were referring to continually dragged
him back to the command line.  (He is an all-around
wizard and can hack that kind of thing.  But that was
not the point of the exercise.)

He tried double-clicking on an RPM file.  Gnorpm
didn't come up, and this is under Red Hat.  He tried
double-clicking on a tarball, but no program raised
its hand to help out.  The system should JUST KNOW
what to do.  It doesn't.

So:  Yes, we certainly need the gadflies, and I will
be submitting my gripes until it is ALL WORKING.
It's a basket case at this point:  a container of
pieces, all of which should go together but don't
quite seem to fit.

Vic