Linux’s Minuses Outweigh Pluses in 14-Day Trial
The story so far: In a quest to end my dependence on Microsoft, I embarked on a 14-day experiment. I tossed all my Microsoft programs and made Linux my primary operating system.
But the experiment hasn’t been totally painless. My new desktop computer flaked out at the start, and I had to reinstall all the software before it would work. The Linux programs lacked features crucial to my work. And making the system do what I wanted was very frustrating.
But there have been bright spots. One of these is a package called StarOffice.
Day Five
Published by a unit of Sun Microsystems, StarOffice version 5.2 is free for individual users to download and install on their computers.
The program features a Web browser and an e-mail client, as well as a word processor, spreadsheet, database and graphics program. Files can be saved in “native” StarOffice formats or equivalent Microsoft Office ones.
During my test of StarOffice on Linux, I wrote and sent several stories to editors in Microsoft formats. The files came through without a hitch, I was told.
Of all the Linux applications that claim to be Microsoft-like,
StarOffice comes closest to the Microsoft Office suite.
There were minor annoyances, however: StarOffice originated in Germany, and many elements have a distinctly European feel to them. Word processing templates, for example, display dates in European style.
Oliver Petry, a technology manager with Sun Microsystems in Menlo Park, Calif., said the firm is working on “localizing” the next version of the program. He said other improvements are planned for the next release, due sometime in the first half of 2001.
Day Nine
A Linux portable arrived for testing. One of the things I can do with my Windows computer is plug in a wireless networking card and work anywhere in my home. It’s great when the sun hits my home office late in the day, or when I want to work while glancing at an event on television.
Despite assurances from the manufacturer that its unit can handle the Lucent ORiNOCO wireless networking card I use, the test was a dud. A call to the firm’s tech support revealed that they “don’t have any experience with these things.” They sent me some links to Web sites offering help.
A lot of Linux support is on the Web. Somewhere. Or in one of those 471 books that Amazon.com will sell. Or in a newsgroup.
But it’s not usually with a real person, 24 hours a day, seven days a week--at least not for my VA Linux test computer. When I hit a snag one Sunday afternoon, a call to tech support reached a desk “somewhere in the Central time zone.”
The voice at the other end said I could get help if I were a corporation that had paid for after-hours support; otherwise, please call back during business hours.
My issue was suddenly not being able to access the Internet. Something was hanging up. I finally broke down and called my cable Internet service provider, AT&T; Broadband.
I tried a few fixes suggested by a friend at AT&T;, but my connection didn’t get better. I backed up my documents and reinstalled Linux from the ground up. It worked, and rather nicely.
There were a host of other things I couldn’t do easily during these two weeks without Microsoft Windows. They ranged from minor annoyances to major frustrations:
* I had to go to the post office to buy stamps. Big deal? Well, I’m a user of Santa Monica-based Stamps.com, which has Windows software to let me print postage at home. It’s cool--even if the company hasn’t made a profit yet. But it doesn’t work with Linux or the Mac OS.
* My faxes come through my computer, but I could read only the cover page with Linux’s free image editor, called GIMP. I had to switch to a Mac to view and print faxes.
* They say you can hook up a laser printer to Linux and have it work. I just plain ran out of time and patience for a test.
* Though there are a bunch of games out for Linux, you won’t find a version of Quicken or Microsoft Money to balance your checkbook. There’s talk of a grass-roots campaign to get Intuit to port Quicken and QuickBooks, its small-business accounting program, to Linux, but I won’t hold my breath. If I were using Linux long term, I’d have to modify a spreadsheet for this purpose, something the 15-year-old Quicken product was designed to surpass.
Lucky for me, my 14-day experiment was coming to a close.
“You lucky devil, did you get anything done?” asked Rob Enderle, vice president of desktop and mobile technology for Giga Information Group, a research firm in Santa Clara.
A veteran industry analyst, Enderle agreed that Linux wasn’t ready for the average home or small-office user.
“You need a lot of technical skill” when running Linux, he said. “For the average user, it requires a degree of competence and skill they don’t have to acquire with Windows. When you’ve got an existing product, the challenger needs to be better, and Linux isn’t.”
Could the picture change? It’s possible. There’s tons of enthusiasm for Linux, and eventually there will be more “plug-and-play” solutions for those of us who don’t write in C++ every day.
But until then, the billions of dollars Microsoft has spent making Windows work--and work relatively well--seem to be paying off.
In other words, I’m ready for my Windows Millennium Edition, Mr. Gates.
*
Mark A. Kellner is editor at large for Government Computer News.
Crossing Platforms
* Of course, there are other ways to make non-Windows operating systems play nice with Microsoft programs. Jim Heid describes a few in Mac Focus. T8
