The future of linux

[jack at coats.org (Jack Coats)]

Another brain storm (?) just came in, .. AOL and QuickBooks are the
reason for VMWare to exist.

I have a friend that runs an ISP.  He loves M$Outlook, for e-mail and
contact management, and usability rolled into one.  He runs NT under
VMWare for this only, and using VNC he can just hotkey over to it
do what he wants, and hotkey back to keep doing his Linux support/
development.

This is a reasonable solution for a small business person, but not for
grandma.

... IMHO ... Jack


----- Original Message -----
From: Derek Martin <dmartin at ne.arris-i.com>
To: Derek Atkins <warlord at MIT.EDU>
Cc: gnhlug <gnhlug at zk3.dec.com>; BLU mailing list <discuss at Blu.Org>
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2000 12:10 PM
Subject: Re: The future of linux


> On 31 Jan 2000, Derek Atkins wrote:
>
> > Derek,
> >
> >  * Currently she uses AOL..  There is no AOL client for Linux.
>
> My prejudices get in the way here too... no one should use AOL :)
> However, this is not a shortcoming of linux, it is a shortcoming of AOL.
> Then again, the type of people who currently use Linux tend not to use
> AOL, so they have no reason to write a client -- ouruboros?  Never can
> remember how to spell that... :)  Snake eating its own tail.
>
> >  * She uses QuickBooks. There is no alternative for Linux
>
> You've definitely got me here.  There isn't a good replacement.  There is
> an alternative, GNUCash, but it's not ready for prime time.  Getting there
> though.
>
> >  * I think she may have some other third-party software which isn't
> > available for Linux.
>
> Probably, but can it be replaced by something that is available for Linux?
> And again, this is a short-comming of the software vendor, not of linux
> per se.  They are coming around, albeit slowly.  How do you fix that?
> Write the vendor, I guess.  Though software vendors have been slower than
> hardware vendors to come around.  But you can't fix that problem with
> code, except for coding a replacement...
>
>
> --
> "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"    "Who watches the watchmen?"
> -Juvenal, Satires, VI, 347
>
> Derek D. Martin      |  Senior UNIX Systems/Network Administrator
> Arris Interactive    |  A Nortel Company
> derekm at mediaone.net  |  dmartin at ne.arris-i.com
> -------------------------------------------------
>
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