The Answer Guy Issue 32
"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
Contents:
Greetings From Jim Dennis
phreaking
- ISP Abandons User in Move
to NT
- Driving Terminals w/Java
--or--
- Java Telnet/Terminal
- Finding BBS Software for Linux
- The Five Flaws of the
Unix System
- XFree86 Installation in
DOSLinux
- resume on AS/400
--or--
- Resume Spam
- Linux Port of SoftWindows
- Connecting Linux to Win '95 via Null Modem
--or--
- A Convert!
- MS FrontPage for Linux/Apache
- Virtual System Emulator for Linux and Why NOT to Use Them
- FoxPlus for Linux ?
- More on Distribution Preferences
- IP Masquerading/Proxy?
- PPP
--or--
- The "Difficulty" is in Disabling the Services
- How to read DVI files?
- Bad Super-block on Filesystem
- Mulitiple processes sharing one serial port
--or--
- Multiplexing the Computer
-- ISDN Modem Connection
- Permission to Set up a Linux Server
- Detaching and Re-attaching to Interactive Background
Processes
- [announce] Cdrdao 1.0 -
Disc-at-once writing of audio CD-Rs
- High Speed Serial (RS422) under Linux
- ANOTHER MODEM PROB Plus, More on Grammar
- /usr/bin/open command not found
- Tuning X to work with your Monitor
- The last Linux C library version 5, 5.4.46, is released.
--or--
- The End of libc5:
A Mini-Interview with H.J Lu
- Linux System Administration.
--or--
- Where to put 'insmod' and
'modprobe' Commands for Start-up
- The BIOS Clock, Y2K, Linux and Everything
- Online Status Detector
--or--
- Failover and High Availability for Web Servers
: Conditional Execution Based on Host Availability
- SysAdmin: User Administration: Disabling Accounts
- Thank you
--or--
- Articles on LILO Saves Life?
- Netware NDS Client
--or--
- NDS (Netware Directory Services) for Linux:
Clients and Servers
- More 'Win '95 Hesitates After Box Has Run Linux?'
- Bad Clusters on Hard Drive
--or--
- Another Non-Linux Question!
- Help with C/C++ Environment Program
--or--
- Integrated Programming Environments
for Linux
- Web Server Clustering Project
- wu-ftpd guest account on a Linux Box
--or--
- WU-FTP guestgroup problems
Linux as a Home Users System
We're all getting used to the idea that Linux can attract corporate
users, for deployment as web, ftp, file (SMB and NFS), print and
even database servers; and we're getting used to seeing it used for
routers, mail, and DNS.
We're even getting used to the idea that corporate user put Linux
on their desktops (in places where they might have spent a small
fortune on a workstation).
But, what about the home/personal user? Most of us consider this
to be an impossible dream. Even those few enthusiasts in the
Linux community who dare to hope for it have been saying that
it will take years to gain any percentage of that market.
However, I'm starting to wonder about that. I've seen a number
of trade rag articles naysaying Linux on the desktop. Ironically,
when a reporter or columnist explains why Linux isn't suitable for
the desktop, it actually raises the possibility that it is
suitable for that role.
A denial or refutation tells us that the question has come up!
What prevents the average IT manager from deploying Linux on their
desktop today? In most cases it's fear. The users are used to
MS Word, MS Excel, and MS PowerPoint. Any user who uses any of
these is forcing all of the rest to do so as well (since these
applications all use proprietary, non-portable, file formats).
Everyone who uses Office has to use a PC or a Mac (and many of them
switched away from Macs due to lags in upgrades and subtle file
compatibility problems between the Mac and PC versions of these
applications).
Why do Mac users run VirtualPC to deal with the occasional
.DOC, .XLS, or .PPT file that they get,
or some other
proprietary file format (like some of those irritating CD-ROM
encyclopedias) which is accessible only through one application.
However, these proprietary formats are not secret codes. Linux
and other Open Source (tm) hackers will turn their attention to them
and crack their formats wide open. This will allow us to have
filters and converters.
'catdoc', LAOLA, and MSWordView are already showing some progress
on this area (for one of these formats).
Microsoft will undoubtedly counter by releasing a new version of
their suite which will carefully break the latest third-party
viewers and utilities (free or otherwise). They may even apply
the most even perversion of intellectual property law yet devised:
the software patent.
However, I think the public, after a decade of following
along with this game, is finally starting to wise up. The next
release that egregiously breaks file format compatibility
may be the end of that ploy (for awhile at least).
But what about the home user. How do home users choose their
software? What is important to them?
Most of them don't choose their software; they use
what comes on the system and add things only later.
When they go out to buy additional software, home users are
the most price conscious of all buyers. Commercial,
government, and other institutional buyers can make a business
case to justify their purchases. Home users just look in
their wallet.
The other common influences on the novice home user include
the retail store clerks and their kids. That's one reason why
the school and university markets were always so crucial to
Apple's success.
I noticed that the Win '98 upgrade was going for $89. I
couldn't find a "non-upgrade" box anywhere in that store (CompUSA).
People are starting to hear that for half that price, they can get
this other OS that includes enough games and applications to fill
a 2GB hard drive.
I think MS is actually starting to price itself out of the market.
(It seems that my MS-DOS 5.0 upgrade was only about $35 or $40.)
If MS Office weren't bundled with so many new systems, there
probably would be about a tenth the legal copies in home use.
With a little more work on LyX and KLyX and a few of its brethren,
and a bit more polishing on the installation/configuration
scripts for the various distributions, I think we'll see a much more
rapid growth in the home market than anyone currently believes.
I think we may be at 15 to 20 per cent of the home market by
sometime in the year 2000.
So, what home applications do we really need to make that happen?
- I like the "Linux Software Wishlist"
- (http://www.linuxresources.com/wish/)
... because it gives all of us a place to vote on what we
would buy.
One class of packages that used to be very popular
was the "greeting card" and "banner/sign" packages: PrintShop,
PrintMaster, and Bannermania. Those had the cheesiest
clipart/graphics and a fairly limited range of layouts. Limited
enough to make any TeXnician scream with frustration.
However, they were incredibly popular precisely because of those
constraints. Having a few dozen to a couple hundred choices to
pick from is far less intimidating to home users than all the
power and flexibility you get with TeX, LaTeX, and the GIMP.
I would dearly love to see a set of pre-designed greeting cards,
certificates ("John Doe has Successfully Completed the Yoyodyne
Tiddly Winks Seminar"--with the lacy border--you know the
kind!), etc. all done in TeX or PS or whatever. This and a
front-end chooser and forms dialog to fill in the text would be
a really killer home app.
Bannermania was geared to creating large banners, either on
fanfold paper or as multiple sheets to be cut and pasted together
onto a backing board (piece of cardboard).
I think a new Linux implementation of this sort of app
built over the existing software (TeX, GhostScript, etc) would
end up being vastly better than anything that was possible under
the old PrintShop, and still be as simple.
I'm sure most of us have that one old DOS, Windows, Mac, or
other application or game that we'd like to see re-done for Linux.
So, dig out the publisher's address or phone number (assuming they
still exist), and let them know what you want. Then post your
request to the wishlist.
Even these trivial bits of action can make Linux the choice
of home users. I say this because I think it's about time
they had a choice.
Previous "Answer Guy" Columns
Answer Guy #1, January 1997
Answer Guy #2, February 1997
Answer Guy #3, March 1997
Answer Guy #4, April 1997
Answer Guy #5, May 1997
Answer Guy #6, June 1997
Answer Guy #7, July 1997
Answer Guy #8, August 1997
Answer Guy #9, September 1997
Answer Guy #10, October 1997
Answer Guy #11, December 1997
Answer Guy #12, January 1998
Answer Guy #13, February 1998
Answer Guy #14, March 1998
Answer Guy #15, April 1998
Answer Guy #16, May 1998
Answer Guy #17, June 1998
Answer Guy #18, July 1998
Answer Guy #19, August 1998
Copyright © 1998, James T. Dennis
Published in Linux Gazette Issue 32 September 1998
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