[Re: linux as a workstation]

[Matt Graham]

Edward Glowacki <glowack2@msu.edu> wrote:
> Quoted from Mark Szidik on Wed, Aug 15, 2001 at 11:19:35AM -0400:
> > Here is what I demoed:
> > 
> > twm (just to contrast it with the heavyweights)
> > Gnome
> > KDE
> > Netscape (for familiarity and the mail client)
> > Mozilla 9.x
> > GIMP  (this really impressed them)
> > Dia
> > Gnumeric
> > Abiword
> > StarOffice 5.2  (I showed opening Word and Excel documents)
> > 
> > VMware - I ran out of time to demo it.
> > 
> > I also explained and demoed SSH forwarding of X applications from
> > a server to my desktop.
> > 
> > They loved the demo portion.  So my suggestion to you is to
> > dazzle them with a hands on demo.  Then explain that its all
> > free!
> 
> I'd add GNUCash to that list, it's a good solid piece of software
> from what I've seen.  Also, if you have a box with enough horsepower,
> you might setup a DVD player (I've had success with vlc on FreeBSD).

Gnucash?  Er... while it works, the latest version is more difficult to
install than Oracle8i, and it takes longer to start up (15 seconds on a T-bird
850 w/192M and a 33M/s (as measured by hdparm) disk subsystem) than Mozilla! 
Maybe moneydance instead, if you can sort through the Java problems?

If they want eye candy, show them Enlightenment. If they want something
"familiar", then the control panel/general interface of KDE 2.1 should
suffice.  Don't forget the minesweeper/solitaire clones--people love their
little games.

-- 
Matt G / Dances With Crows
There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
"I backed up my brain to tape, but tar says the tape contains no data...."