Gene Heskett wrote:
On Friday 13 July 2007, Gordon Keehn wrote:
[...]
It comes down to utility. I'm sort of a semi-geek; I've been
running Linux on my n-1 box since RH 6. I will never be free of
Windows, though, because I have two critical apps which I cannot run
under wine, and for which suitable replacements (according to MY
requirements) do not exist.
And I would opine that those requirements are false, crutches if you will,
that justify in your mind, the reason to stick with winderz. File formats
seem to be the biggest thing, and the last time I had trouble opening
somebody's 'word' document was back in RH7.3 days. OpenOffice Just
Works(TM).
You would opine incorrectly. As it happens I use OpenOffice on both
Linux (F7) and WinXP. The applications I refer to have functions which
are not (after considerable searching) available in other products, or
which are documented as being available, but in practice require an
investment of skill and time which are unsuitable given an alternative
that "just works".
Certainly there are limited alternatives, but adapting to one of
them would require that I give up functionality. That may be acceptable
in the isolated context of punishing Microsoft for its insufferable
arrogance, but for the average user who sees a computer as a tool to
allow certain tasks to be performed more easily than they could be
otherwise, it doesn't make it out of the gate. Thus, my answer to the
original question, "Can Linux beat XP in homes yet or NOT?" must be a
resounding NOT YET, AND PROBABLY NEVER!
Cheers,
Gordon Keehn
