RE: tlug: X resolution / color depth

["Jonathan Byrne--3Web" <jq@example.com>]

>> We've got slick X features like having a virtual screen bigger than your
>> monitor that people may love, but they to have the ease-of-use things,
too.
>
>I hate that.. :)

I did too, actually, but I found a good use for it.  Under Afterstep, when
you minimize a window it's icon may get covered up by the next thing you
open, and then you have to minimize or move that window to find the icon
when you want it back, because there's no always-on-top task bar (a big
reason I like FVWM 95 - I love the task bar).   But if you make the virtual
screen size bigger than the physical screen, you can just kind of slide a
window most of the way off the screen to get it out of the way.  Then when
you want it, you can see it and you just drag it back into the screen.  That
has it's drawbacks too, but until Afterstep gets a taskbar I guess it'll
have to do.  No, I'm not holding my breath :-)

>most people convert to Linux because they're sick of what they were using
>before.  if they liked w95 so much, they'd stick with it, IMHO.

Yeah, but if those are the only people you ever get, Linux will never be
more than the bit player it is now (and Linux is a bit player when you
compare the installed bases.  Heck, IBM publicly called OS/2 a failure, but
it has a bigger installed base than Linux.  At least according to IBM, they
have 8,000,000.  Linux claims 5,000,000).  To become major, we have to offer
people something they like *better* than the current OS and that is not only
as functional as it, but is easy to use and is *more functional*  We aren't
there yet.

The reason I still use Windows so much is because there is a whole raft of
things I can do under Windows that are either done poorly or not at all
under Linux.  Granted, a lot of that comes in the area of applications that
aren't there and hardware I can't use, like my LPT video camera.  The main
issue with me that's proper to Linux itself is the poor level of support for
Japanese.    If I were only working in English, it would be fine.  That
would still leave my camera, but I suppose I could sell it and get a Quick
Cam.  And then there's my digital camera.  I'm not aware of even one digital
camera that software exists for to download its pictures into Linux
(somebody tell me if you know of any for FujiFilm digital cameras!), and the
lack of Internet telephony software.

Multimedia is another area where a lot of progress needs to be made.

That brings us back to the issue of capturing mainstream users again.  There
aren't enough people like the ones who currently use Linux to inspire many
developers to work on stuff for it or to inspire hardware manufacturers to
ship drivers.  So we have to not only to continue to capture the tech types
who already constitute basically the whole installed base, but also capture
more mainstream users.  To do that, we need to offer the same kinds of
features that the proprietary OSes do.  Granted, the mainstream users we
capture are going to have to be knowledgeable people with a sense of
adventure at first, but we will eventually need to get more of the standard
user types.  Here's a benchmark for when we're really getting somewhere:
computer stores that build their own housebrand machines will start offering
Linux as an OS option instead of Windows.  And if a lot of them start doing
it, sooner or later a major manufacturer might.

This is one that there's nothing that we can do about, but the myriad
distributions and that fact that some things work differently on each one
than they do on all the others will  probably be a point of confusion as
Linux moves more into the mainstream.  I know there's no way the various
Distributions will merge into one company (unless PHT gets so big it buys
all the others ;-)    ), but if at some point they could all agree on a
common standard of what goes in what directory,  what libraries to use,
etc., so that switching from one flavor of Linux to another was almost like
moving from one Mac to the one next to it, I think that would be helpful.
Everybody likes consistency.  And of course, I'd like to see them all adopt
RPM.  Not holding my breath on Slackware :-)

>we're working on it.  This Applixware-J thing will be a big boost, I
>think.

I think so too.  It'll be a blockbuster.    I already told Cliff I'll buy
one as soon as you release it :-)

>Macs are never going to be server machines, I don't think.  They're too
>cute for that :)  (and too expensive - why would I pay all that $$ for a
>G3 when the same money gets me an Alpha??)

Yeah, but don't forget the Mac religion.  A lot of people would rather eat
worms than buy anything else.  And being used as a development environment
and a server OS is exactly what Apple is positioning Rhapsody as and what
they are saying about it.  They don't intend it for the average Mac user.
They're aiming it at the people who would be using NT on an Intel platform.
Apple wants people to use G3 machines as servers and powerful development
machines, and with a UNIX-based OS like Rhapsody, they would probably do a
good job.    A G3 with Linux on it would really get out of its own way, too
:-)

Jonathan

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