On 15/01/2020 14:37, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Wed, 15 Jan 2020 13:57:18 +0000, T i m wrote:

On Wed, 15 Jan 2020 13:37:39 -0000 (UTC), Jethro_uk
wrote:

snip

Install Linux (Mint being my distro of choice for a laptop,
Debian for a server) and never worry about Microsoft again.

Except for those Windows Only things that you end up running in WINE,
Dual boot or a Windows VM and you are still running Windows?

I have a Win7 VM. Haven't used it for over a year.

Why do you have it in the first place though?

It's a hangover from when I used to test stuff for work


snip

The shame is that the Linux fraternity couldn't get together and unify
even one distro / spin that the software developers could hang their
hats on then it might be doing better than ~5% of the desktop market
after all these years.

The "killer app" for Linux would be an equivalent for Outlook.

Whist I've always been happy with Thunderbird (or Netscape Communicator
before that (was it?)), I agree re the requirement for Outlook by many.



So what happens. Does Thunderbird get maintained and made to work like
Outlook. No. It's dumped. Meaning Linux has no reliable integrated email/
calendar/MS Exchange program.

Thiunderbirtd still works and has a calendar and is still maintained.

Doesnt talk to exchange of course, excxept via POP, but what ever did?



That would allow 70% of business users of Windows to switch with nary a
whisper.

That and MS Office.

The LibreOffice stuff is serviceable and in the right arena. But the
problem is Outlook is installed before any of that. It's the very first
building block in a standard office build PC.

Is it? Never used it in an office ever


It's the alpha and omega of business use.

The total swerve given by the Linux community to such a project tells me
all I need to know about where it's headed.

(IF you are talking Linux) ... On the same old 'minority interest' 5%
path it's been on for years.

And that's a big shame. I say that who has the choice of Windows and
Linux (typically Mint) dual-boot across and range of machines and it's
always what it can't do, over what it can / does do (and often pretty
well) that is the problem for many.

I really haven't needed Windows since I started with Mint myself

I have.
There is no reliable 3D CAD program that runs onLinux nor can I bear to
part with Corel Draw

And Barclays Bank software still doesn't play nice with linux.

So I kleep some XP on a VM tucked away for all that.


My Multi-Boot pen drive has several Lini (32/64 bit, MATE / Cinnamon
etc) and W10 (32/64).

I can't think how many Linux boot DVD's I've given away and the
frustration I have when someone calls me with a Windows issue that I
could help them with remotely (over the phone) if they used Linux the
Linux DVD but hear they have thrown it away because they didn't want /
like it?

I finally got around to a boot image which has SSH enabled by default (I
still can't quite work out why there isn't one as standard). It's a
godsend for plug-boot-fix. Yes, you need the command line (much like
Microsoft have just invented) but that shouldn't scare a geek.



--
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will
eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such
time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic
and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally
important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for
the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the
truth is the greatest enemy of the State.

Joseph Goebbels