Is Linux a desktop operating system?

[albi at scii.nl]

On Sat, 28 May 2005 10:59:07 +0100
Norman Silverstone <norman at littletank.org> wrote:

> Thank you very much for your kind offer it is very much appreciated.
> However, I speak not only for myself but for other members of my
> family who I would like to convert to Ubuntu from Windows. This is not
> because I hate Windows but because I am fed up with having to deal
> with the effects of viruses etc. on their machines. Much of what is
> needed is educational such as access to encyclopedia and reference
> works, 'games' which help in language, maths and science and, of
> course, the ability to listen to and download 'popular' music from the
> net. Also, there is the very large library of games available to run
> in Windows but not in Ubuntu. Perhaps I am missing something but all
> of those pieces of software which my family possess and that I have
> tried do not work in Ubuntu.
> 
> One bright spot is that a piece of Astronomy software called SkyMap
> Lite runs with the help of Wine but, however, the display and the way
> data is presented, is not as readable as when run in Windows for which
> it was developed.
> 
> I could go on but I will stop and leave the rest to others who have
> rehearsed the answers to the question many times in the past and will.
> doubtless, do so in the future.

i don't understand all this complaining about linux and the so-called
lack of software

do you want a completely commercialised linux-world in the future like
the windows-world already is ?

i think the solution is easy, buy Apple computers and a game-console
and all the commercial apps and games you want and dump windows if
dealing with viruses is a problem for you

and if you really want to make a move with linux, then start
contributing, e.g. writing howto's, doing translations, writing to
companies asking for certain software you think you need, and above all
protest against the enormous power-position grip that Microsoft still
has world-wide (think e.g. of the blackmail cases vs. all kind of
hardware-vendors, and getting refunds from the Microsoft-tax)