Hanging onto the desktop, barely (ZDNet) [LWN.net]

ZDNet looks at the battle between Microsoft and Sun for the corporate desktop. "It is not the alternative systems like Linux that pose such a threat to Microsoft's desktop hegemony. It is the crossover applications (Java, Open Office, Mozilla, and The Gimp) that could give Chairman Bill a bad hair day he might never get over."

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other crossover apps

Posted Jun 5, 2002 17:07 UTC (Wed) by Shewmaker (guest, #1126) [Link] (3 responses)

I can't find the project's web page now, but I remember reading about a group of people that were putting together a CD of crossover apps like abiword, gimp, and openoffice in order to expose more of their MS Windows-using friends to free software.

Also, Linux itself may become a crossover app thanks to the User Mode Linux project (see also umlwin32). In fact, unmodified Linux binaries can already be run on MS Windows using LINE. As I understand it, the work of these projects will be merged.

I think that this is a great way to make Linux, and free/open software in general, more ubiquitous.

RE: cross over apps -An effective way to leverage OSS

Posted Jun 5, 2002 17:39 UTC (Wed) by potatohead (guest, #1389) [Link] (2 responses)

I agree with this. Many of my win32 using friends have been impressed with the quality and variety of OSS software out there right now. Somewhere I saw (probably on /.) a notice that such a project was happening. This can only be a good thing.

Not everyone is able to ditch win32 just yet; however, many of them can ditch Office along with other supporting applications.

Following this approach is really the best of both worlds for many of us. You get the savings OSS can provide along with the ability to run those 'must have' applications. Over time this will put the pressure on Microsoft as the cost of their tools will become increasingly obvious as they become the only costs....

RE: cross over apps -An effective way to leverage OSS

Posted Jun 5, 2002 18:15 UTC (Wed) by anandrajan (guest, #146) [Link] (1 responses)

You may be referring to www.theopencd.org. I thought it was www.opencd.org but that's something else. Interesting that www.theopencd.org explictly does not allow cygwin/XFree86-based free software.

RE: cross over apps -An effective way to leverage OSS

Posted Jun 5, 2002 19:27 UTC (Wed) by Shewmaker (guest, #1126) [Link]

Yep, that was it. I understand why they disallow Cygwin/XFree86 programs. They are aiming at people almost totally unfamiliar with *NIX, and so the open CD will be much like a toe dip into a very large pool. When people start learning about the community behind the software on the open CD, hopefully they will become more adventurous and try Cygwin/XFree86 or one of the free OSes. Perhaps the open CD project will put a series of CDs together that with varying levels of difficulty/polishedness.

Crossover apps could prove very important

Posted Jun 6, 2002 16:01 UTC (Thu) by DeletedUser1597 ((unknown), #1597) [Link]

I remember in my desktop support days, I had a die-hard Mac user, but he spent the majority of his time in Internet Explorer, Word, and PowerPoint. Finally, someone convinced him to let them put a disused PC on his desk next to his Mac. He found that IE, Word, and PowerPoint ran a lot faster on that PC than they did on his Mac, even though they were of comparable vintage and the Mac cost twice as much.

I'm not saying sabotage the Win32 versions of free software, but the Linux versions of certain apps will no doubt be faster (particularly the browsers, due to Linux's much-better TCP/IP stack). And the Linux versions will often be available first.

Not only that, once people start to be weened off the proprietary Win32 apps, they'll start to realize that the only software they have to pay for is the operating system, and they'll be more willing to look at Linux in order to save a couple hundred bucks.