[ltp] Linux thinkpad - the Missing pieces

[Tod Harter]

Really as a web based application developer I never had much vested in Windows 
to begin with. I was familiar with Linux as early as 1992 (when it was 
infinitely superior to the extremely crude win3.0). From 1994 to around 2000 
or so I dwelt on NT4 basically because it had a better GUI than any of the 
Linux distros, as well as the total lack of a real Office replacement. From 
2000 to 2002 or so I sometimes used VMWare so I could deal with Office files, 
but otherwise migrated over to Linux on my desktop/Laptop. As of around 2002 
I no longer even own a license to anything newer than win98, and I haven't 
bothered to install that in a year or so.

In short there is no barrier. OpenOffice, Mozilla 1.3, KDE 3.1.0 and its 
various apps provides an environment which is 99% as good as anything 
available in windows in the worst case, and 200% better in most cases.

I have no hesitation recommending migration to a Linux desktop for many of my 
clients. It is a big transition and most probably won't bite, but new 
installations are a lot easier in that regard.

On Tuesday 24 June 2003 12:30 am, Harry Mangalam wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> This is somewhat off-topic, but it does deal with furthering the adoption
> of Linux on Laptops.
>
> I'm writing a piece about transitioning from Windows to Linux (server vs
> desktop, is it possible to do in the 1st place given your IT requirements,
> the financials of it, other pro's and cons, whether your IT and user
> communities have the personalities and requirements for it, etc).
>
> What I'd like to query you about is whether, as Linux laptop users, are
> there some pieces of software that are preventing you from going to Linux
> completely?
>
> Obviously, if you're reading this, a Linux Lappie has become or is becoming
> a useful piece of your computing environment, but some of you may be doing
> this on a personal machine as opposed to a business machine.
>
> If so, what are the key pieces of software that keep you tied to a Windows
> environment and how are you addressing it - vmware, crossover office,
> win4lin, dual boot, separate windows machine?
>
> If you want to expand on it to the desktop situation, that would be welcome
> as well, but I'm very much interested in the laptop issue.
>
> Answers should probably be sent to me direct as it's somewhat offtopic,
> unless you want this cast to the list as well.
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
> Cheers, Harry
> Harry J Mangalam - 949 856 2847 (v&f) - hjm@tacgi.com
>              <<plain text preferred>>

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