Interesting Article - Linux users going back to $M

Install OpenOffice.org 1.0. No command line required. It has yet to crash
on me. On a 200MHz Pentium, 128MB RAM, KDE 3.0, Red Hat 7.3. I use it
several times a week to read and edit MS Word and Excel files I get from
people producing them with MS Office (2000 and XP) tools. Once, on a
complex vendor quote, it reproduced the file with 2 graphic lines out of
place. Utterly smooth otherwise.

However, I agree that a great many apps on Linux do still require a command
line. OpenOffice.org 1.0 is proof that this is improving.

Alan

At 04:44 PM 7/18/02 -0700, you wrote:
>Here's an exercise for you (one that was imposed on me
>this week): help a Windows user step through some
>operations, such as installing a new program, without
>EVER asking them to type a shell command. It was a
>sobering experience, and it reinforced the opinions
>I'm expressing here.
>
>Note that my friend is a highly experienced systems
>engineer who is not in the slightest afraid of the
>command line, has a longstanding and healthy dislike
>for Microsoft, and is acutely aware of the need to
>support Free Software; but he was there to test the
>desktop, and the desktop fell flat on its face.
>
>Vic