Fedora desktop experience: Great, but not quite all I need

From: Benjamin J. Weiss (benjamin_at_Weiss.name)
Date: 05/05/04

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    Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 18:21:33 -0500 (CDT)
To: fedora-list@redhat.com

    Just wanted to share a quick review on my attempt to replace Windows on my
    desktop at home.

    Below are the things I do with the computer and how well they translated
    to Fedora:

    1) Email. I had some problems getting Evolution 1.4 to talk nicely with
    my RH 9 email server via imaps and smtp-auth over tls. I'm still working
    through that, but I got email working by allowing relay from the desktop
    box. My wife is getting used to the interface, but it's no big deal for
    her, so that's a plus.

    2) Digital Camera. My wife has two digital cameras:
     - Kodak DX 3500. gtkam worked just fine, saw the camera and I could see
    all of the pics. The software's not as easy to use as the windows
    software that came with the camera, but I think I can get Kim to use it.

     - Olympus C-750 UltraZoom. I couldn't get gtkam to initialize the
    camera, no matter what camera I selected. The autoselect kept finding it
    as a C-2040Z, which would have been fine if it could have initialized the
    camera. I suppose I'd have to use one of those card readers, but I don't
    know if any of them read Olympus xD cards. This one's a deal-killer for
    my wife. I'll have to dual boot if I can't get this one working.

    3) Office suite. We've been using Open Office at home for about a year
    now on Windows, so the switch to Fedora was a no-brainer.

    4) Games. My wife loves tux racer. :) She wishes we could get frogger,
    but tux racer is okay with her. I haven't tried installing Neverwinter
    Nights on Fedora yet, but I hear that it works just fine, so games
    shouldn't be a problem.

    5) Video. I couldn't even get my video off of my Canon Optura 20
    camcorder and onto the computer with dvgrab. I've left a message on
    the dvgrab message board and haven't heard back these last few days.
    I found a couple of messages in archives that hint that ieee1394 isn't
    working properly yet in linux, so that may be why I had the problems.
    I could control the camera, but just not capture the video over the
    firewire port. Go figure. I may try again when I get the new motherboard
    installed. I don't think it's the board, though, since this works
    flawlessly in Win2K.

    I found a couple of video editing applications that look like they might
    be pretty cool, though I don't know if they'll replace DVDLab. However,
    since I can't even get my video, there's no way to tell. This one's a
    deal-killer for me, as that's one of the major reasons I've upgraded my
    PC, so that I could do home video.

    Bottom line: Fedora is almost there for my personal needs. Great look,
    good experience, but not all of the apps I need are working yet. For now,
    I may have to look at purchasing XP to take advantage of the SATA ports
    on the new motherboard.

    Hope this helps somebody out there.

    Ben 

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