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On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:50:46 -0400 "Matt Shields" <[hidden email]> wrote: > On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 9:12 AM, Rich Braun <[hidden email]> wrote: > > > Before the rise of the Windows desktop, long ago my preferred desktop > > environment was a pretty typical Unix/X11-based workstation. When Linux > > came > > out, that's what I used for the first year or two but once editing and > > finance > > software emerged on Windows, I embraced that and never could get it to run > > with emulators of those early days so since then my home setup has always > > had > > separate systems to run Windows on the desktop and Linux for back-end > > services. > > > > I started to install VMware at work several months ago so now I decided to > > once again try merging Linux/Windows at home. Just a few weeks ago, > > openSUSE > > came out with its 11.0 release. Aha, perhaps the Linux Desktop has truly > > arrived, I thought! > > > > This new version from SUSE is a tour de force in terms of fixing the > > annoyances of 10.3. Once I got an autoyast file set up the way I wanted, > > all > > the server-side issues come up the way I wanted. (It can even install on a > > four-drive RAID10, even though the GUI doesn't include the option.) > > > > *However* let me count all the ways that it fell apart once I tried setting > > up > > my typical desktop. Mine is atypical in one way: like many people, I use > > a > > dual-head desktop (dating to 10 years ago when Win98 came with support for > > this out of the box); but I turn one of the two monitors sideways for > > portrait > > mode. (Don't you just *hate* scrolling through screenfuls in a browser > > session? And how often do you really want to watch widescreen DVDs or > > compare > > two side-by-side pages of text anyway?) > > > > 1) > > Monitor rotation in sax2 falls apart totally if you have two screens. It's > > clear that no one at SUSE or the X consortium ever did QA on this stuff. > > I'm > > sure I could debug the 5 or 6 issues that I found with it, but I don't have > > the time. Any time I do something "stupid" like resize a window to > > full-screen (something that's worked on Windows since the 98 era), it > > scrambles my frame buffer sufficiently to require log-out and restart. > > > > 2) > > The xrandr rotation support, at least on the Intel DG33TLM motherboard > > display > > interface I'm using, is exceedingly slow. Maybe there is an acceleration > > parameter I could set--but this is the sort of thing that just works right > > out > > of the box in a Windows XP installation. > > > > 3) > > When *will* Linux screensaver support actually work? The latest failure > > I'm > > having is that I've got a "clear" screensaver--it locks the display so I > > have > > to type a password to unlock it, but the applications remain visible. I've > > never been able to get it to activate Energy Star monitor-standby mode. > > The > > most common problem I have with the screensaver is that it simply fails to > > activate: you come in to the office in the morning and see the same root > > shell that you were working with the previous day, a major security > > headache. > > > > -- > > Footnote: I have a kubuntu KDE setup at the office; it was much harder to > > get > > dual-head mode working than this openSUSE system at home. (I've never > > tried > > rotating one of the monitors there, mainly because I don't want to breathe > > on > > that setup.) The screensaver problems are just as bad on Ubuntu as > > openSUSE. > > > > Well I just had to vent. My conclusion: Linux is *still* not truly ready > > for > > the desktop, at age 17. Maybe once it reaches drinking age? > > > > -rich > > > > > You should read the article about some private school in this month's Linux > Journal. They converted to linux 99.9% 5 years ago. The only thing they > have 1 windows desktop for is Quickbooks which they could not find a good > alternative, although I believe Quicken now offers a web version. Instead > of trying to co-exist with windows, they just eliminated it completely (with > that one exception), and they've done fine.
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