From: Eric Crampton < e...@ecrampto.async.vt.edu>
Subject: Linux advocates---Please read
Date: 1996/08/18
Message-ID: < m3enl47jcn.fsf@ecrampto.async.vt.edu>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 175056681
organization: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
reply-to: ecram...@vt.edu
newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
I got this URL from a recent post on comp.os.linux.annouce, and I suggest
that all Linux advocates should read it:
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/~wirzeniu/texts/advocating-linux.html
This would be a much better newsgroup if everyone followed Lars' advice.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric Crampton (ecram...@vt.edu) | WWW: http://csugrad.cs.vt.edu/~ecrampto
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bnel...@netcom.com (Bob Nelson)
Subject: Re: Linux advocates---Please read
Date: 1996/08/18
Message-ID: < bnelsonDwCMqL.GrK@netcom.com>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 174961479
sender: bnel...@netcom17.netcom.com
references: < m3enl47jcn.fsf@ecrampto.async.vt.edu>
organization: a computer running Linux
newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Eric Crampton (e...@ecrampto.async.vt.edu) wrote:
> I got this URL from a recent post on comp.os.linux.annouce, and I suggest
> that all Linux advocates should read it:
> http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/~wirzeniu/texts/advocating-linux.html
> This would be a much better newsgroup if everyone followed Lars' advice.
Thanks to Eric for making all of us aware of this link. Kudos to Lars
for recognizing the need for such advice.
As a longtime reader of this newsgroup, it has both amused and amazed
me to see the incessant putdowns of other operating systems and
the software hosted by such systems.
This type of excess serves the Linux advocate no good.
Please bear with this football analogy: One of the traits that has
served Joe Paterno (Penn State's coach) so well, making both him and
his team almost universally respected, is his praise of the opponent.
Even if the opponent is clearly outclassed by his team, Coach Paterno
makes a point of highlighting the strengths of said team.
He realizes (and has perfected this technique to the point of nearly
an art) that a victory over a belitted opponent isn't much of a
victory at all. (Joe can sometimes be a bit disingenuious in this
regard but it does keep his team from taking even a clearly outclassed
foe too lightly).
* Likewise with Linux advocacy: If an advocate degrades Microsoft and
(for example) the Windows 95 platform to be nothing more than the
absolute lowest form of crap...and then Linux is comparatively offered
as a better solution, isn't the advocacy then rather hollow?
--
=============================================================================
Bob Nelson: Dallas, Texas, U.S.A. - bnel...@netcom.com
linux for fun, M$ for $$$...and the NFL for what really counts!
=============================================================================
From: s...@netcom.com (Sam Trenholme)
Subject: Re: Linux advocates---Please read
Date: 1996/08/19
Message-ID: < setDwEDy7.Aot@netcom.com>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 175160778
sender: s...@netcom21.netcom.com
references: < m3enl47jcn.fsf@ecrampto.async.vt.edu>
organization: NETCOM: Running Linux
newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
>http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/~wirzeniu/texts/advocating-linux.html
>
>This would be a much better newsgroup if everyone followed Lars' advice.
There is one paragraph in the above URL I have a disagreement with:
| Linux can't replace Windows. Windows has applications that Linux lacks.
| There's no reason to get excited about it. No system is perfect for all
| things. Don't make yourself look ridiculous claiming that LaTeX is a
| better wordprocessor for the masses than MS Word.
The "use LaTeX to write documents in Linux" is an argument that has been
outdated this year. With the release of Word Perfect, the preliminary
release of StarOffice, the availability of ApplixWare, to name three,
commercial word processors are available for Linux, and give you the ease
of use for the end user, with the enhancement of more stability and
multi-user protection.
Even at the time the LaTeX arguments were prominent in this newsgroup,
running SCO WP was a viable option.
I know of a leading CAD program being developed for Linux (Microstation,
*I believe*, is the name), so we will have a good retort to the "No CAD
programs for Linux" line we get from CAD users.
Linux still has a ways to go to have the ease of use of Windoze 95, but a
lot of significant progress is being made to made to make Linux a viable
option for the end user.
Of course, the real challenge to give Linux mass appeal is this:
* Which is better, xpat2 or Windoze solitaire?
Xpat2:
* Multiple games of solitaire that you can play.
* Faster operation, just click on the card and it is placed.
* Ability to play the same card shuffle multiple times.
* Multiple undo.
* Hint feature.
Windoze solitaire:
* Prettier cards.
* More intuitive user interface-- you don't have to know to select
'klondike' to play solitaire.
* Attractive display when you win.
* Ability to cheat by taking cards from the top back down to the bottom.
(Example: you need a red three. There is, already placed at the top, an
ace, two, and three of diamonds. In Windoze you can pull the three down
and play it. In xpat2, you can't)
* You can select where cards go.
Which is better? Depends on what you are looking for.
Take care,
- Sam
From: Mark Hamstra < mark.hams...@sullivan.bentley.com>
Subject: Re: Linux advocates---Please read
Date: 1996/08/19
Message-ID: <3218CAF2.3F66DD90@sullivan.bentley.com>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 175176622
references: < m3enl47jcn.fsf@ecrampto.async.vt.edu> < setDwEDy7.Aot@netcom.com>
content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
organization: Bentley Systems, Inc.
mime-version: 1.0
newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
x-mailer: Mozilla 3.0b7 (X11; I; Linux 2.0.12 i586)
Sam Trenholme wrote:
[...]
> I know of a leading CAD program being developed for Linux (Microstation,
> *I believe*, is the name), so we will have a good retort to the "No CAD
> programs for Linux" line we get from CAD users.
Essentially correct. A leading CAD program called MicroStation has been
developed for several platforms; it has also been ported to Linux/Intel
and will be released in the near future as part of the MicroStation
Academic Suite. So, to the "No CAD programs for Linux" barb there will
soon be a good retort if you are an academic user. If you would rather
be able to offer the unqualified "Linux has the best CAD software in the
business", and you would be willing to pay for this commercial software,
then you must make your desires known at
http://www.bentley.com/products/change-request.html.
I've said it before and I'll probably say it again: The only thing
preventing MicroStation from being fully supported on Linux is a lack of
expressed commercial interest; if this changes, so will the status of
MicroStation on Linux.
Mark Hamstra
Bentley Systems, Inc.