Re: Linux on the desktop - it's come a long way, but is it there yet?

["Ruben Safir Secretary NYLXS" <user=91@nabble.blu.org>]

 On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 12:25:00PM -0400, Rich Braun wrote: 
> Matt Shields wrote: 
> > You should read the article about some private school in this month's Linux 
> > Journal.  They converted to linux 99.9% 5 years ago. 
> 
> OK OK I give up trying to bring up a point on this list.  This point is 
> interesting but completely besides the point that I was trying to make. 
> 
> A private school converting to Linux simply isn't likely to run into the 
> problems that I raised:  getting a two-monitor setup configured with rotation, 
> getting sound to work, and whatever else comes up every single time I've 
> switched to a new Linux distro. 
> 
> I'm typing this on the new system (complete with Firefox 3.0 out of the box) 
> with both monitors set up.  The portrait-mode one has a sluggish performance 
> but it otherwise looks fine, just as long as I don't go into certain of the 
> *THREE* or maybe even four different display-related system management menus 
> buried in different places. 
> 
> My point is this:  display setup is controlled from exactly one menu in 
> Windows (accessible two different ways, control panel or right-click anywhere 
> in the background), and it's been fully debugged to the point that a neophyte 
> can accomplish any setting without having to resort to googling for parameters 
> that have to be entered into a kernel boot prompt or somewhere equally 
> obscure.  Criticize M$oft (or Apple for that matter) all you want--but they 
> have a QA department responsible for eliminating the .0001% rate of customer 
> complaints related to things like buggy display drivers in dual-head rotated 
> mode for blind people living in Latin America needing to run a 10 year-old 
> version of Quickbooks with whatever other oddball requirements they might 
> have.  When  you have a billion customers, that small percentage adds up to a 
> lot of customer-support work if the code ain't right. 
> 
> Linux has a huge number of users too:  why do we have to live with this kind 
> of stuff?  Googling error messages for two weeks every time we upgrade? 
> 
> Item #5: 
> 
> 5) 
> If I activate certain of the screen-"savers", the motherboard eats 30 watts 
> (!) of additional electricity in order to perform the 3D calculations.  (Maybe 
> they need an Energy Un-star icon next to these selections. ;-) 
> 
> -rich 
>