MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-03-06 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Desktop Linux
|
by Kevin L. Ritchey
Pennsylvania attorney Kevin L. Ritchey has written an open letter about
using Linux on the desktop -- from the user's perspective. Ritchey
chronicles his successful switch to Linux, laments a few features still
in need of improvement, and offers us his opinions as an average daily
user of Desktop Linux. Ritchey did not make a switch because of cost
or philosophical reasons -- rather he moved to Linux because it worked
better and was more productive . . .
I've been reading several articles recently on the viability of using
Linux on the desktop. The articles present various perspectives, from
the developer to the evangelist to the IT specialist. I'm writing today
to let you know of my experiences ? the end user.
I am a 36 year old attorney practicing law in Pennsylvania, US. I began
using computers in high school, a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer. In college
I became familiar with DOS, Unix and Apple/Macintosh. In those days I used
computers for word processing and little else. In the early 90's I bought
a Macintosh computer for graduate school, and found the Internet ? text
based and limited to e-mail, WWW, gopher, and FTP (for my purposes) ? but
it was a whole new world. In law school I sold the Macintosh computer
and bought a Packard-Bell computer. Microsoft was a new creature to me,
I had never used it before. Windows 3.11 was intuitive enough, but seemed
crude and too complicated coming from the Macintosh OS. Windows 95 was
soon shipped to my door and honestly, I really liked it.
Then came Windows 95B, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows 2000 and Windows
XP. I've used them all (except ME). I've used and become dependent upon
Microsoft Office and particularly Microsoft Outlook. I am a Microsoft
Certified Professional and consider myself reasonably familiar with the OS
and the platform. As an attorney, I use the computer to conduct research
(Online and via CD-ROM), draft documents, correspond via e-mail, instant
chat with colleagues, and manage my contacts and calendar. The critical
functions in descending order of importance are:
* Draft/Exchange documents in Microsoft Word and
* Word Perfect formats
* Print those documents
* E-mail correspondence
* Conduct Online research
* Manage my calendar and contacts synchronizing
with my Palm Pilot
* Share my calendar and contacts with my
secretary
* Manage my to-do lists and project
outlines
* Draft/Exchange documents in
Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3
formats * Instant messaging with
colleagues
These are all tasks I do on the
desktop. There are also other
computing tasks such as file sharing
and printer sharing that are critical
to my law practice as well, but those
are handled by our Linux server. A
few years ago I decided to move to
Linux from Windows 98 for stability
reasons and see if I couldn't use
Linux on the desktop as well. Blue
Screens of Death (BSOD) were all
too common then and Gnome and KDE
were replacing FVWM and TWM.
Long story short ? it didn't work
out. I couldn't work well with Word
and Word Perfect documents. As you
can see that is the most critical
aspect of my use of the desktop. All
the other functions were usable,
albeit not as nicely as on the
Windows platform though.
So I stayed with Microsoft
and upgraded to Windows 2000
Professional. Wow! Not nearly as
many BSOD's. Microsoft Windows 2000
is such an improvement to Windows 9x
that it relegated Linux to a hobby for
several years. I had used NT, but it
was not as polished, nor as reliable
as 2000. To date, I still believe
Windows 2000 Professional is the
best OS Microsoft has ever published.
However, over a year ago, two
substantial developments occurred
that brought Linux back from the
server room to my desktop. First,
Sun released the code to Star Office
and the Openoffice.org project was
born, and second, Netscape released
their code and the Mozilla project
was born. These two projects were
the turning point in how I used the
desktop. After Openoffice.org 1.0
(OO.org) was released I began to use
it occasionally and was impressed with
its ability to work with Microsoft
documents. More importantly, I began
to see features that were missing in
Microsoft Office that I slowly began
to depend upon. Word completion is
included automagically. Autotext
is in my opinion more flexible,
more extensible and easier to
use. I found the compare document
feature more reliable than any in
Microsoft Office. And the layout of
the UI was more manageable for my
purposes. In less than six months I
had replaced Microsoft Office with
OpenOffice.org. But more importantly,
I had come to rely upon OO.org. It
was more than a ?replacement? for MS
Office ? it was simply a better tool
to accomplish what I needed to do
and to be more productive in my day.
I work on a HP Pavilion Laptop
that dual boots to Windows XP and
Linux. Yes, I've had to recompile
the kernel adding the ACPI patch to
get my USB working properly on this
particular laptop ? long story. But
the information is on the web and it's
not particularly hard to recompile a
kernel. I've had to modify my Gnome
desktop considerably and still find
myself wishing I could do some things
in Gnome that I can in KDE and visa
versa. But who hasn't changed the
Windows settings and wished they
could do some things differently. I
don't know how Windows users ever get
along without Pagers, ?alt-mouse? move
for grabbing windows anywhere, and
?cntrl-mouse? resize in KDE ? this
needs to be added to Gnome's window
manager (Sawfish or Metacity).
But a few weeks ago something occurred
to me. I was at home and needed to
get online. We have an AOL account
for this purpose and so I booted to
XP to accomplish this. (I know... and
I am looking into Peng) I loaded up
Mozilla and OO.org (I use them on MS
XP as well) and my first impression
was two-fold. First I remembered
that nice little utility that sits
in my system tray and keeps both
these programs loaded in memory
? Wow! they start up fast. That
REALLY needs to come to Linux. But
then I noticed something else ? my
bookmarks are old! I haven't booted
to XP in months. And while I do have
a neat little utility to read my ext3
partition under Windows, it isn't
nearly as easy to work with as working
with FAT32 under Linux. So, I'll have
to update those bookmarks later. Let
me say that again for those of you
that missed it ? it has been months
since I used Microsoft. I consider
myself to have ?made the switch.? Not
out of costs reasons ? I can afford to
buy Microsoft's software and I don't
think it is unreasonably priced. Not
for philosophical reasons ? I don't
particularly like their business
tactics, but I like a government
interfering with free commerce even
less. I didn't switch because of the
BSOD. Since Windows 2000 this hasn't
been an issue for me (I still prefer
2000 over XP, but my video card in
my laptop needs XP in a bad way,
ie BSOD is still there). I didn't
switch because I want everything free
? I'll pay for a good product and
Open Source programmers should expect
to be paid too (see the Kroupware
project for a good example). I
switched because it worked BETTER
and made me more PRODUCTIVE.
In other words, I believe people
should consider switching to be more
productive and make more money or
spend less time in front of their
computer and more time sailing,
hiking and playing with their kids.
I would be remiss to leave anyone
with the impression that ?Linux
has arrived.? I still need a better
Exchange replacement. I'm looking
at Bynari Insight Server, Samsung
Contact and the Kroupware project. But
really! This should have been done
years ago. Why are so many Open Source
projects on Freshmeat.net and Source
Forge doing the same thing over and
over ? I don't need a new mp3 player
(I use Ogg because it's better, btw)
? I don't need a new instant messaging
client ? there are several that work
great! I don't need another web-based
groupware project ? this has been
done. I really don't need another text
editor, game, IRC client/bot/script
or another DVD ripper. I realize
many of these projects are
?learning experiences? for Open
Source programmers and there
are legitimate needs for these
programs. I'm not lamenting that
they exist. I am lamenting that
there are so many different types,
versions and projects when an Open
Source Exchange type groupware server
with cross-platform capability and
the ability to talk to Outlook still
does not exist. And I don't mean
to be critical. I just wonder why
Microsoft Exchange's capabilities
haven't been replaced/extended
sooner. Browser based groupware is
slow (HTML renders slow even on a LAN
network during heavy file transfers)
I just want to write an e-mail or
add a task ? I shouldn't need to
load another HTML page to do so.
Lastly, before I get off my soapbox,
I would suggest that someone somewhere
consider paying their Open Source
developers (listen up RedHat, Suse,
Lindows and Caldera, etc...) to
develop the following programs
considered indispensable by many of
my colleagues still using Windows:
* Off-line Mapping (similar
to MS Streets) solution ? I am
not sure of the availability of
royalty free mapping data though.
* Off-line Encyclopedia
(anyone thought of moving
Wikipedia to CDROM?)
* Intuit's Quickbooks ? I know Appgen works and works
well. I'd use it if I had the need, but an OS alternative
doesn't exist.
GTK/QT front end for Mysql or Postgresql to mimic the
functionality of Microsoft Access ? this should be a
standard part of any distribution proclaiming to be
a ?Desktop Linux.? * A ?bundled? group of home user
friendly and useful software to mimic Microsoft's Works
package. This is bundled with almost every computer
you can buy today ? Linux should have a counterpart
that is even better. The programs already exists. But
the user shouldn't have to dig through Freshmeat.net
or Source Forge to find them. Particularly, the above
programs need to be added (an off-line encyclopedia, an
off-line mapping utility, and a non-programmer database
front-end with useful home user type templates).
This list is short (there already exists projects
for a couple of these). But the major distributions
need to take a more active role in this. The Server
market is attractive, but the desktop market is
huge. Consider for example that at one time everyone
used DOS... hmm... Things do change and it is not a
leap to imagine a world where most people use Open
Source software.
One last note. Other than the fact that Open Source
software has made my life easier and more productive,
there is another reason why I now prefer Open
Source software to traditional proprietary or closed
source software. Availability. There is nothing more
frustrating than finding out the program you depend upon
is no longer available because the company went out
of business, was sold to a competitor or the hundreds
of other reasons why software ?disappears? in today's
world. Where is WordPerfect for Linux? Thank you Corel
for encouraging me to realize that although I don't
mind buying software, I'll stick to buying Open Source
software so I won't be left on an island in a couple
months or years.
So, now you have the opinions of an average daily and
heavy user of Linux on the desktop doing non-glamorous
things like creating, printing, mailing, sharing and
exchanging documents and ideas ? you know ? business.
Sincerely,
Kevin L. Ritchey, Esquire Miller, Poole & Lord, LLP
139 E. Philadelphia Street York, Pennsylvania 17403
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