[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 13:55:55 -0000 (GMT) "Matt Lee" <matt@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Personally, I don't find GNU/Linux all that easy to use. GNOME 2.8 is getting better, but it's not as easy as it could be.. look at Mac OS X - that's an example of easy to use, because you never have to worry about terminals or kernels or any of that. I've never patched a kernel, and I don't think I really should want to do that.
You've never patched a kernel? That makes two of us! And I don't find it hard to use. And you do have a terminal in OSX, you're just discouraged from using it by burying it away.
What a GNU/Linux desktop machine needs, in my opinion:- * A decent browser and only one browser. Firefox is this.
Spot on with this. But what about "integration"? Other systems have the same features available for browsing the harddrive and manipulating files as they do when browsing the Web. Wouldn't Konqueror or Nautilus (or whatever Gnome uses these days) be a better browser?
* A decent email client, doesn't need too many features. I've not seen this. Apple OS X Mail is this.
Not too many features, eh? Which ones do you want? "Plugins" for things like anti-spam products, virus scanners, etc, or scripting ability to give an easier option of the developers of said functions? HTML support (I don't)? Integration into the desktop and/or use of Exchange servers?
* A media player that just works. Works in the browser as a plugin too - plays media from Windows Media, Real, QuickTime, plus the free formats (Theora, etc). Think QuickTime.
Well, that's sorted already. QuickTime? What about Mplayer?
* A music jukebox that rips, organises and plays a variety of common music formats. Think iTunes.
Why, oh why? And if iTunes isn't your cup-of-tea but you prefer something along the lines of MusicMatch?
* Debian on crack packaging - use deb to deliver updates in a way that's simple. I don't care if perl 4.4.232.32.23.3.23.23.32.131.3.5343.43 is out. I just want it wrapped in with a bunch of other updates nicely packaged as 'Software Update for 10th Dec 04'
I agree on this front, but I think that an option to take a peek inside the "Update for 10th Dec" so that the interested can find out what changes are being made.
* Plug and play for things like USB keys, Firewire drives, iPods, Flash memory cards
It does. The only thing I have had to do for my USB key is create an entry in the fstab. I didn't have to do so, but I wanted to do so that all my mountable filesystems are in one place. I could quite have easily left it up to the USB daemon thing to create a new mountpoint and use KDE to access it. I would be none the wiser.
* Fast User Switching - XP and OS X have this. It's cool.
This is a good idea. Of course there are already ways to open a new X session. Under Debian there's a menu entry for a "New Login" screen. To switch, all you do is press CTRL+ALT+F7 or F8 or F9, etc, etc.
* Photo organisation - I should be able to plug in my camera, have my photos sucked onto my computer and filed into nicely organised albums.
But where? A user definable place or "the default place"? And why would you want it to do this? Wouldn't that mean that if you plugged your camera into *any* Linux machine (even a machine that isn't yours) your photos would be sucked onto that computer? If you happen to be lucky enough to have a 1Gb flash card in your camera, and it's nearing capacity, I don't think your friends would be very happy with you if you suddenly took over ~1Gb of their space without asking! Some good points there Matt. Unfortunately, these things are usually "defaults" for a system backed by a company. The "Apple" way of doing things, or the "Microsoft" way of doing things. Ask yourself this: if these things were important to everyone for the same reasons and in the same manner, why is there already such variance in the software "market", even when considering non-Free or Commercial softwares? iTunes is great, but some would argue that MusicMatch is better, and others still would say that WMPlayer is the best. Lots of options already, and we've not yet touched on the wealth of Free Software that does the same thing! Grant. -- Artificial intelligence is no match for nuratal stidutipy. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe.