On Fri, 2007-08-31 at 17:38 -0700, Kurt Granroth wrote:
> Craig White wrote:
> > On Fri, 2007-08-31 at 11:00 -0700, Josh Coffman wrote:
> >>    Does anyone know if there is a way to make compiz or beryl work
> >> with fast user switching. (using fedora 7 if that matters). 3d desktop
> >> isn't a big deal to me but its a nice way to impress people with
> >> linux.. plus one of the launcher panels I like needs a composite
> >> window manager to work. 
> > ----
> > I always thought that the impressive thing to demonstrate was stability,
> > text based configuration files, automated installations/updates and of
> > course free software.
> > 
> > Eye candy things like compiz/beryl are hardly stable and are impressive
> > only for people that know little about computers. Thus a compiz/beryl
> > demonstration is perfect for pointy haired bosses but few else.
> 
> Heh... Craig, it is amazing that you and I can love the same thing
> (Linux) yet be so polar opposites on darn near everything about it.  I
> don't think I could disagree more with what you said there.
> 
> Stability, text conf, automated installations, and free software matter
> to sys admins and people who work on their computers constantly.  Your
> average desktop user doesn't give a rat's ass.
> 
> The snazzy eye candy due a phenomenal job at getting people's attention.
>  I can't count how many times people have stopped short seeing a
> Compiz/Beryl desktop and were blown away.  These people may not have
> known about Linux before (or if they did, knew of it as an
> unapproachable geek thing) but after seeing the glitz, more than a few
> will go on to check it out for themselves.
----
but when they try it at home, they'll struggle to get it working on
their system...including the hoops necessary to load the proprietary
3D/Accelerated drivers, etc.

That's of course not considering the times I have had log off when beryl
gets flaky (though I am still using beryl with Fedora Core 6).

I understand the logic of sell the sizzle...not the steak. I don't find
beryl to be anything more than amusing and often in the way of being
productive but perhaps that's because I am using it on a 1 Gb machine
running Intel video (thankfully no 3rd party binary video driver
required). I have fired it up to show people and then log off and back
on so I can get back to work.

I have a network where Macs/Windows/Linux users all login using their
same user credentials (LDAP), auto-mounting the same $HOME directory
(whether Windows/Mac/Linux).

I have been buying Dell Optiplex 320's with 19" LCD, 1 Gb RAM (Microsoft
taxed), first boot into Fedora 7 kickstart (total install time with all
configuration loaded from kickstart and a full update after install is
1:30 minutes) where new Mac's took almost 3.5 hours to update to current
10.4.10 (with 2 reboots). Considering that these Dell systems are 1/3 of
the cost of the last Mac's we purchased, they are astounding (the cost
factor not inconsiderable to a non-profit).

Maybe you're right though...we live in a world where people don't have a
clue on how to use stylesheets to format word processing documents,
perhaps beryl is just what they need.

By the way...the average user does give a rats ass when he's got to fork
out $300+ for MS Office, etc. The average user does give a rats ass when
he can't copy the music he purchased from iTunes Store onto his new
computer because of DRM. Until we get rid of the Microsoft Tax, the
average user isn't going to figure out how much the Microsoft OS is
costing him.

Craig

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