On Mon, 2003-06-16 at 08:17, Tom Achtenberg wrote: > After several weeks of unsuccessful effort to install Linux on a desktop I am giving up and returning to more profitable activities. I have tried 3 different distributions (Mandrake 9.1, Red Hat 8.0 and Knoppix 3.2) all with much hassle and no success. Some on this list have alluded that I have a hardware problem yet the same PC was rock solid on Windows 98 SE. Last night I installed Windows 2000 server on it with no problems whatsoever. The evidence leads me to conclude that Linux has some small niche areas it is good at, as a desktop OS it is simply not there. Yes, if you are geeky enough and have the time to spend editing config files by hand and recompiling every app so it works on your machine it may be fun. I need to spend my time in more productive environments. Using Dereks criteria when he labeled FoxPro a "toy" database I have to say Linux is a "toy" OS. Good for specific narrow applications but run the whole enterprise on it? No way.
>
> So I wish you all well with your endeavors with Linux but I am moving on.
>
> Tom Achtenberg -----
As I have said before, there are people that light candles and there are
people that curse the darkness and we all have to decide where we fit.
It does seem that it takes a bit more understanding of computers to make
Linux run on the desktop than it does Windows but someone that is
content with Windows 98SE is not likely to find much of interest in
Linux.
As for Derek's critique of Visual Fox Pro, I would have to agree with
his assessment that for beyond the 5 to 10 user, it is not at all
appropriate. I used to use dBase/FoxPro but found the development time
too great for it's abilities. For quick & dirty database stuff, I much
prefer Filemaker Pro but it too doesn't scale well enough for > 10
users.
As for running an enterprise on Linux, clearly it is a more scalable and
flexible choice for the infrastructure than any Windows OS. As for
desktop, it's not competitive with Windows...yet. But it is more than
usable for the desktop and if you believe in the concept of Free
Software and GPL, it is worth hanging in and helping it become the
desktop client that rivals if not surpasses Windows.
Anyway, good luck to you though I have to admit that I'll not miss the
whining.
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