Application Equivalents

[msimon1960]

I'm a 30 vet in personal computing -- my first one was a VIC-20 and I even played around with the venerable Sinclair once. I've seen and used most every OS as one time or another. Now I'm playing around with Ubuntu as a possible replacement for Windows.

I couple of thoughts...

1. I support the concept of Ubuntu -- I fundamentally support the notion of a OS that is not tied to applications. Microsoft is in a conflict of interest since it designs its OS to support its applications. An OS should do nothing more than manage the hardware and provide a stable environment for running applications. In my opinion, Netscape, WordPerfect, Lotus died not because the Microsoft equivalents were better but because the OS was tuned to their disadvantage and critical information was withheld by Microsoft.

2. The installation environment for Linux is immature -- I had considerable trouble getting hardware installed and functioning. Priority one for the whole Linux community is to get the hardware installation problem solved -- a common core installation driver spec for all hardware.

3. Equivalent Apps -- If I were an app designer I would select the most popular Windows apps and starting writing equivalents asap. For example -- there are no equivalents to FoxPro/dBase environments that I can find. I also can't find equivalents for ACT!, GoldMine, or Maximizer as CRM products.

Just some thoughts...

[kerry_s]

Average joe user 3 years with linux and still learning. I have no computer skills but i can read.

Okay, will get right on it. You should really look what open source is, it's not a company, there are no employees, it's people who have a need and decided to do something about it, then they decided to share it.

1. Ditto

2. Installation is getting better all the time,sure there are still some quirks, but once you learn the linux way of doing things, you'll find you can go from distro to distro and it will all be familiar. Also just because MS gives you no choose on how you can set up your install does not make it good or right.

3. There are thousands of app's freely available, in all likely hood there is an app that can do the job you want, it's just a matter of learning how to use it.

Just my thoughts

[cunawarit]

First computer I used was a ZX81 as a kid on my dad’s lap :) then an early IBM clone where I got my first taste of programming in Basic. I’ve got a few computer science publications under my belt (nothing impressive) and I’m currently working in industry as a .NET developer.

1) I agree wholeheartedly.

2) I haven't had any installation problems with any distros I have tried. In fact, I've found the Linux installation process less painful than the usual Windows driver hunt. From what I gather this isn't a problem that is going to go away until more hardware manufacturers develop drivers for their hardware. Until then I guess Linux users will have to be mindful about hardware.

3) Yes and no with this one. The Open Source community is often criticised because they imitate and not innovate. Of course we need apps like GIMP and OpenOffice, but we also need the sort of apps that aren't available in the commercial world, this is the sort of thing that encourages people to migrate.

[tortolitas]

Thinking about migration...

I found this link to a Table of Application Equivalents Wiki today today just before I found a link to this thread and joined the site...

http://www.nawaz.org/wiki/index.php?title=Table_of_Equivalents

might be useful

-Guy