[KLUG Members] I almost snorted coffee out my nostrils...

[Adam Williams]

>> Someone ought to reply to Forbes' editors about this, with hard research...
>> any takers?
>> 							Regards,
>> 							---> RGB <---
>I have and if you are interested here is my reply

Let us know if you get any kind of response.  I'm not holding my breath, 
but it will be interesting.

>From: 	Mathew Enders <mathew.enders@prodigy.net>
>To: 	ldicarlo@forbes.net
>Cc: 	letters@forbes.net
>Subject: 	RE: Your propaganda piece
>Date: 	17 Nov 2003 09:18:01 -0500	
>Ms. DiCarlo 
>It is evident from the comments you make in your article 
>(Why You Won't Be Getting A Linux PC) that:  
>1)You have never run Linux for any period of time.  
>2)That you allow your local MS rep to write your material. 

Thats a little inflammatory.  Would have been preferable IMHO to be more 
smarmy.

>"We're not dismissing Linux PCs out of hand, but the integration
>[Microsoft] provides around the desktop is already there," says Bridget
>O'Connor, senior vice president of technology at Lehman Brothers (nyse:
>LEH - news  - people ). "The Office suite all works together. That's a
>whole set of engineering staff I don't have to have on Lehman's
>payroll."  

This was an interesting point at the Novell/SuSe/Ximian/IBM schtick last 
week.  They emphasised this - Standards and Integration - and why Open 
Source either can't or has a hard time delivering a enterprise worthy 
desktop.  And comparing M$-Windows UI to GNOME/KDE is apples & oranges.  
Compare M$-Windows UI to XD2;  a product vs. a product - not a product vs. 
a project.

OOO components interoperate seemlessly, and integration with evo and 
nautilus just works.

I think the same problem in regards to Open Source is also evident in the 
Groupware arena,  it is interesting to examine why every purely Open 
Source groupware project has fallen on its face; usually before even 
managing to stand upright.

>Quote 
>There is also a lack of mainstream applications for Linux PCs, and
>that's not going to change anytime soon. Sure, there are open-source
>software suites like StarOffice and OpenOffice, but beyond that it's
>slim pickings.   
>It's clunky or impossible to run Linux versions of the most popular
>applications: Intuit's  (nasdaq: INTU - news  - people ) Quicken,
.... 
>Not exactly a ringing endorsement but it's understandable 
>Reply 
>1)Quicken, QuickBooks and TurboTax finance softwar = Viper and smartACCT
>        from eData and GNUCash from the Open Source community and OSAS  
>        from Open Systens inc. 
...

You'll never will this arguement.  Once this one rears its head it is best 
(again IMHO) to just stop talking and let them do whatever.  It reflects 
an approach that a computer/OS exists to run application "A", not to solve 
problem "A" (via whatever appropriate application).  Open Source, Linux, 
or even "reason" just can't win here.