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Re: Don't Be Soft On Microsoft
Oleg Wrote:
> A good WYSIWYG wordprocessor would certainly be helpful, and I am all
> for it being compatible with Word (but will Mr. Gates support the
> idea?). I'd like to mention though that Doron's argument is
> essentially "Word is popular, so everything else should conform to
> it," whereas the thread started from "how to compete?" And the example
> is not the most convincing: I doubt that _any_ WYSIWYG editor is a
> good choice for a collaborative project (which is essentially similar
> to a group development effort); TeX/LaTeX is much more
> suitable, doesn't care whether the project participants use the same
> system, allows each to use his favorite text editor, and is not even
> hard to learn. All of which, incidentally, is why it is used all
> over the academia and academic publishing (collaborative papers are
> routinely submitted in LaTeX to various journals - by email, no need
> for hardcopy, same with referee reports - and camera-ready articles
I totaly agree with you as far as LaTeX (rather than TeX, which in itself is
more complex to use) being a very convenient platform to write documents.
It is also, as you said, very convenient to transfer source documents
between people collaborating in writing a paper.
I have used it extensively when I was affiliated with the COmputer Science
department, and am still using it at work to write documents in English.
When I went down to the business school, I have met people with much less
reconnaissance of computers, and none whatsoever of LaTeX. PCs with Windows
and MS Office are much more extensively scattered around campus than Unix
terminals/workstations. People get familiar with these products rather
than with Unix and LaTeX. Furthermore, MS Word is purchased by many
businesses, so people are also familiar with it from work.
The last problem is Hebrew. I am aware of some attempts to add Hebrew
support to LaTeX. Nonetheless, I haven't seen it working, and have no idea
how convenient it is to use. Without Hebrew support, LaTeX could only serve
those writing documents in foreign languages, and cannot be expected to
spread that widely in Israel.
.....
>
> To summarize, a good WYSIWYG editor for Linux (especially
> multilingual) is a very important application to develop, but for
> reasons different than the one given by Doron. I (mostly) agree with
> Ira that Linux is at its best as a development/server platform, and
> while thinking of "killer applications" one should keep in mind the
> population of prospective users who a) need them, b) can climb the
> learning curve without too much effort. I don't think that "Now you
> can install Linux and you won't be able to tell it from Win95" is the
> right promotional strategy (though it would satisfy Erez Doron's
> friends, I guess). At the same time, providing personal-use
> applications (wordprocessor, personal finance, educational software
> etc) in addition to development-oriented ones (where Linux is already
> quite strong) will make Linux _sufficient_ to those of us who need it
> and/or like it. Just how many of us keep Windows only because while
> Linux is great for the most important things that we do, it still fails
> to provide something we _also_ need?
>
I am all for Unix. I have been using Unix for over 10 years, and I feel
very comfortable with the operating systems, its power, its stability
and its flexibility.
Nonetheless, reality shows us that MS Windows NT is in high demand for
business applications, and is used many times in place of Unix. I say that
with sorrow, because I am no big fan of MicroSOft products. I have less
faith in their reliability and stability than in those of Unix.
If a package duch as MicroSoft Office was available on Unix. If all the
products in the package, together with other products were well connected
to each other, like in the case of MS Office and MicroSoft Internet Explorer.
Then, that would have been a great start point to push Unix (Linux or other
brands) in place of Windows. Oh, and we need all of these products in a price
that will be competative with the price of Windows and its products.
> Oleg Goldshmidt
> goldshmt@netvision.net.il
>
--
Doron Zifrony 1 Oranim Str. Tel: 972-3-5304324
Data General Technology Givat Shmuel 51905 Fax: 972-3-5325917
Israel E-Mail: doron@jaguar.dgt.co.il
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed hereby are my personal opinions.
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