[luau] Linux Sux?

[W. Wayne Liauh]

Last week I had a chance to chat with a couple of my attorney friends 
who were kind enough to try Linux. Their comments were unanimous: No one 
likes Linux. I asked their reasons; their major complaints include:

   1.

      OpenOffice.org is too slow, way too slow;

   2.

      Linux file manager sucks;

   3.

      Powering off the machine is a big pain, no one could remember the
      “shutdown #@%#%#” command;

Etc., etc.

On the surface, this may sound really discouraging, but, in reality, I 
am beginning to see light at the end of the Linux desktop tunnel. Their 
biggest problem was, they were using older versions of Linux that—now I 
have to admit--were not ready for desktops (Red Hat 8 and Mandrake 8.2). 
Who could tolerate a wordprocessor that takes, on some machines, more 
than a couple of minutes to load (OpenOffice 1.0.x and StarOffice 6.x)? 
Fedora Core Test 3 (Red Hat 10 beta 3) still has some glitches but it 
now includes OpenOffice 1.1, which loads (on my AthlonXP 2000 machine) 
in less than 10 seconds. Lack of a competent office suite is THE largest 
stumbling block preventing anyone to consider Linux desktops. OO.o 1.1 
has just opened the Linux desktops gate and now everyone can begin to be 
admitted.

On the file manager and other stuff, the key lesson I have learned is 
that, never EVER give someone, no matter how computer literate s/he may 
claim to be, a LinuxDistro ISO (or a set of LinuxDistro ISOs) and leave 
that person alone. Giving someone a Linux CD is the best way to lose 
friends and trash your credibility. I am sure things will change after a 
couple more iterations, but have you ever handed someone a Windows CD 
and expect everything will just fit into the right place?

I will touch the subject of Linux desktop customization (e. g., the 
“poweroff” icon that I mentioned in a previous post, plus customizations 
in Konqueror, etc.) later. But the future of Linux desktops should be 
very bright. wayne