RE: [SLE] OO: If you can make it, I can break it!

I hope I am not just stepping in a pile steaming doo, but ...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Culp [mailto:dculp@xxxxxxxxxxx]

<snip>

> Excel in Windows on the same PC
> opens instantly, even on cold boot. So does Lotus123 and the
> spread*** app in Wordperfect Office (I never use it, can't remember
> the name).

1) M$ spends a lot of time to make you think the system is up when it is
not yet complete. To their credit, some functionality becomes available
very early even though not everything is ready. Any app written with
their development tools will likely take advantage of the same kind of
early partial availability -- or see 2).

2) Windows loads a lot of bloat (even right in the operating system
kernel) -- which means a lot of stuff, libraries, etc ... is pre-loaded
and all you are doing is starting a thin interface to it.

> OpenOffice has come a very long way. But to be taken seriously it
needs
> be a hell of a lot better. I sometimes think about getting into
> programming for no other reason than to work on projects like OOo.
>
> /rant off
> I have to agree completely. I love Linux but it seems the application
> load
> time is absolutely unbearable. Why should it take 10 seconds to load
> Firefox or Evolution, on Windows or Mac OS X the browser and email
client
> load in a few seconds. It seems this has been a problem for awhile, I
> have
> been away from Linux for a couple of years and I can remember even
back
> then
> that the application load times were inexcusable. Someone (and maybe
> someone has) needs to work on that.

The difference is in structure -- Linux is a different choice -- if you
want these type of Microsoft-y things -- such as a faster *perceived*
application load time, you can probably achieve that on your own, by --
perhaps getting firefox and OOo to load themselves when X starts up. As
far as making some of the functionality available to the user prior to
load completion, you will probably need to talk to the coders.

/prognostication on
As a business -- Microsoft had done some very good things -- they have
addressed some major pain points for end users. As desktop OS's go, XP
isn't half bad (maybe only 30% bad) -- although for myself, I much
prefer Linux. The thing is -- they haven't done anything
*technologically* superior, per se -- the problem you complain about is
about more about customer perception. When the market is right, the
likes of Novell and RedHat (etc... possibly a third party specializing
in such things -- like crossover office ...) will introduce distros or
packages which tune a desktop this way.

When that happens, there will be parity for ease of use in the desktop
market, and Linux will explode on the desktop. Linux will not take over
the desktop, most likely -- but it will make a big dent. MS will remain
dominant on the desktop as long as they are a viable company -- the
difference will be that there will be real choice for Joe-end-user.
Probably, Windows will still grow on the desktop as well as Linux -- in
absolute numbers, because global penetration of PCs will continue to
increase -- MS will lose relative ground for a while until the market
equilibrates. Windows will probably stagnate in the enterprise market,
since (mostly) only slow-moving bureaucracies that are already
entrenched in Windows will continue to buy MS server products. MS is
pushing hard to be on the handheld -- and I think they are doing well
there, too -- If that doesn't muddy up the water, I think you'll see MS
expose some of their source (I'm not sure if it will be OS source,
Office source -- or what, but I suspect OS -- although it may be an old
revision, or a separate tree from their actual products). I think the
reason they will do this, is that the market will have proven to them
that you can make money with an open source model -- if it is structured
right -- the pressure to do so, will be their desire to focus on their
more profitable elements, and the increased need to either interoperate
or lose *all* of the business (not just os or app or whatever) when they
*force* businesses to choose.
/prognostication off

<snip>

Well, I smell doo -- I, indeed, stepped in it.


PATRICK FREEMAN,


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