Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 09:06:29 05/27/02
Go up one level in this thread
On May 27, 2002 at 03:35:15, Daniel Clausen wrote:
>On May 26, 2002 at 19:41:30, Christophe Theron wrote:
>
>[snip]
>
>>Yes and in the case of Linux it can be achieved by making the GUI as close as
>>possible to Windows. KDE is doing approximately that, but they should stick
>>even more to the "Windows-like" idea.
>>
>>But it's not enough and I believe that even some more technical aspects should
>>be made more Windows-like. It would attract people like me, and we are many.
>>And we are opinion leader, somehow. At least to some modest extend.
>
>While I agree that making Linux Windows-like in some ways is a good (the only?)
>way to attract more users, please keep in mind that when a potential user is not
>ready to sacrifice something (it's more exchanging some things with other/more
>things, but she won't realize that until later) she will never really switch.
People will not switch for the pleasure of switching.
People will switch because they want to save money. Windows is becoming
extremely expensive.
1) for individuals (like me) who have several computers. I have 3 at home and 7
at the office. No wait, at home I have 4 (almost forgot that 486-133).
2) for companies who have many computers to update.
Windows XP Home Edition here costs approximately 230€, or $200. If I want to
install Windows XP Home Edition on all my computers (because I want all my
computers to run the same OS for simplicity reasons), I have to pay 2530€, or
$2200.
That's absolutely impossible. I will not pay that money to Microsoft.
Companies are thinking along the same lines.
And don't forget that it is not a one-time expense. Every 2 years you have to
buy the new Windows version. So in 2 years I would have to pay again $1000 or
so.
>I'm sure that Linux (or at least certain distros) will become more
>'Windows-like', but as long as this the main criterion of people, they will not
>switch to another OS. Afterall Windows is the OS which comes closest to
>Windows..
It is much too expensive. Linux would be the free OS that would come closer to
Windows, that's the idea.
>The Apple OS never tried to look like / behave like Windows. Yeah, they don't
>have that much market share, but at least "they're different", which also
>attracts people. (hint: Steve Jobs is quite happy with his market share, he's
>not really trying to get 50% or something, believe me ;) And I'm positive that
>they will still exist in 5 years - of course with similar market share. *smiles*
Come on! Microsoft had to invest nig money in Apple several years ago to help
them. They did it because if Apple and its OS disappears Microsoft would be in a
too obvious position of monopoly (well actually they have be found to be, so
that did not save them).
>If Linux would look/behave exactly like Windows, many people would probably also
>think "Gah, Linux is almost like Windows, I can as well use Windows itself!"
"Gah, Linux is almost like Windows. Let's save $2000".
>[big snip]
>
>>Finally I have the universal problem to be able to use Word and Excel
>>documents. It would be possible to convert all my existing documents one by
>>one to the Koffice applications, maybe, but I find these applications to be
>>in an early state of developpement at that time. And naturally I would have
>>a problem every time someone sends me an MSOffice document by email.
>
>I'm using the suice from OpenOffice.org and it works quite nice. I can read the
>Word documents I get pretty well. One of my co-workers went back to using M$
>Office because one table in a document looked different than under Word2000...
>See what I mean?
>
>Note: I've only used the Writer app. (Word like) No experience in the rest of
>the suice.
From reports I have seen, there is no satisfying solution to this problem.
Sooner or later you will get a document which does not display/print well and
that's going to be a problem.
I hope it will get better, but you can count on Microsoft to add very nasty
quirks in their documents format so it gets very difficult to clone MSOffice.
Christophe
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