[NTLUG:Discuss] Open Source

[Chris Cox]

Robert Citek wrote:
> On Jan 31, 2008 11:04 PM, Chris Cox <cjcox at acm.org> wrote:
>> I don't have a hard statistic.  But of the "knee jerk" revolution
>> conversion crowd, those that got mad and made a mass conversion,
>> a significant portion returned to Windows.  And... the problem with
>> that is they won't be trying Linux again... at least not for a
>> VERY long time.
>>
>> So... no sense putting a really bad taste in their mouth.  Better
>> to put Linux into places where it's well suited... and as mentioned,
>> there will be those who convert voluntarily.
> 
> But linux isn't the only Open Source in town.  I too have had push
> back from introducing linux in various places.  However, I have been
> very successful in introducing Open Source applications on Windows,
> including Open Office, FireFox, Thunderbird, and Gimp.  And since all
> of those are available on PortableApps[1], it makes it really easy to
> distribute by giving them a CD or USB key with the software on it.

For me it's about 60/40.  60% success for example with Thunderbird.
A lot of folks move back to Outlook (or Outlook Express)... which
is just so troubling for me since it's almost guaranteed that your
.pst files will get fried at some point.

Gimp?  Well.... probably only in unrealistic cases where a
computer professional doing graphics works is somehow "broke"
(which is really weird if you think about it).  Gimp is nice,
but it lacks key features for professionals (features that
have patent or other hindrances... Pantone for example).

For the amateur... shoot a lot of people can get by with Picasa's
rudimentary tools... or if they need something more, they
get Photoshop Elements (which likely they got for free with
their computer).

Firefox, much better success rate, but YOU HAVE TO HAVE
MSIE for some sites.  And for many it's stupid things like
sites that are critical to their business (sigh).

I do give out lots of copies of the OpenCD.  But did like it
better when it was also a bootable/installable Ubuntu
in addition to a free software CD (only so much room on a CD).
I guess now we need the OpenDVD.

> 
> Two recent cases:
> 
> 1) a friend was preparing a manuscript for publication and running up
> against a deadline.  He need to have some images modified and was
> fretting on where to get a copy of Photoshop.  I gave him a copy of
> PortableApps, fired up Gimp, modified the images, and away the
> manuscript went.  I let him keep the USB stick.
> 
> 2) another friend of mine directs a clinical lab.  She recently got a
> PowerPoint presentation from a colleague that would not open in MS
> Office.  Using Portable OpenOffice from her USB key, she was able to
> view the presentation in Impress without a problem.

Most recently I needed to "borrow" some pages from a protected
PDF file <cough>.  Breaking PDF security is fairly trivial (did that
oddly enough running a Windows program under Wine).  But converting
the doc to something Word could use just made Word blow up (too
much data causes Word to blow up).  OpenOffice to the rescue.  It
read the massive amount of data and allowed me to save in a
Word compatible format to save the day.

Linux and FOSS are well suited to tasks like that (again, solving
the impossible).