From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jul 22 13:22:45 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 311761065675 for ; Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:22:45 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perrin@apotheon.com) Received: from oproxy5-pub.bluehost.com (oproxy5-pub.bluehost.com [67.222.38.55]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id EE9A98FC1D for ; Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:22:44 +0000 (UTC) Received: (qmail 15717 invoked by uid 0); 22 Jul 2011 13:22:44 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO box543.bluehost.com) (74.220.219.143) by cpoproxy2.bluehost.com with SMTP; 22 Jul 2011 13:22:44 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=default; d=apotheon.com; h=Date:From:To:Subject:Message-ID:Mail-Followup-To:References:Mime-Version:Content-Type:Content-Disposition:In-Reply-To:User-Agent:X-Identified-User; b=A53Avd8UMxSmM13dohERfESXnj7qIfu4oQ2ClMQQM24PcbfgPHK9xfi8YMx7QsQoGT5WG5twwRbi8SenOmhpj05x88qVFAPOZL84clP+WhaIpwqzPD6kPd1FGUPOUMHw; Received: from c-24-8-180-234.hsd1.co.comcast.net ([24.8.180.234] helo=kukaburra.hydra) by box543.bluehost.com with esmtpsa (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1QkFgh-00044x-DU for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Fri, 22 Jul 2011 07:22:44 -0600 Received: by kukaburra.hydra (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Fri, 22 Jul 2011 07:05:59 -0600 Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2011 07:05:59 -0600 From: Chad Perrin To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20110722130559.GB73065@guilt.hydra> Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <375e5bcac1acd4b781ef97bd1718e689.squirrel@www.magehandbook.com> <20110721161356.GI5129@think.gnix.co.uk> <20110721171154.GA69523@guilt.hydra> <20110722085210.GA8786@think.gnix.co.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="VrqPEDrXMn8OVzN4" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20110722085210.GA8786@think.gnix.co.uk> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i X-Identified-User: {2737:box543.bluehost.com:apotheon:apotheon.org} {sentby:smtp auth 24.8.180.234 authed with ren@apotheon.org} Subject: Re: 2020: Will BSD and Linux be relevant anymore? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:22:45 -0000 --VrqPEDrXMn8OVzN4 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 09:52:10AM +0100, Jamie Paul Griffin wrote: > On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 02:06:04PM -0400, Daniel Staal wrote: > > > > One of the people I know uses this as his work laptop, running Excel, > > Powerpoint, Outlook, Word, etc. (Of course, he's not running Android > > at that point...) The 'laptop' is a tablet in a case with a > > bluetooth keyboard. He uses this _at his desk in the office, next to > > a desktop computer._ (Because he can then take the work home with > > him, or bring it to a meeting.) >=20 > With the exception of the spreadsheet and the MUA - and I use that > description lightly - most of that functionality can be achieved with > TeX and with a more professional appearance. Granted this approach > requires a higher skill level but on balance it's worth it because the > results are better. People in corporate environments seem to use this > "toy" software a lot which I can only imaginge is for ease and because > almost anyone can use it. It can't for cost benefit as the most popular > version is so expensive. I would never pay that much for something put > together so badly. I do appreciate, though, the conveniece bluetooth > and the-like provide. At the moment it's just not something I care too > much about. re: TeX and MS Word or OO.o Write TeX is a print formatting system. MS Word and OO.o Write are very poor text editors with some very poor facsimiles of print formatting systems built into them. They also have some very poor facsimiles of Web formatting systems built into them. There are other very poor facsimiles of various other things built into them, as well. I think there were originally halfway decent reasons to use word processor applications like MS Word, mostly because *good* print formatting systems, Web formatting systems, and so on, were not readily available in forms that could be reasonably acquired and used by mere mortals. This state of affairs has generally been rectified, but has not made a dent in the growing market for such poorly conceived applications. At this point, I think the market for such applications is essentially a mass case of Stockholm Syndrome. In the rare occasions where people actually choose such tools for a "good" reason, that reason is that other people keep sending them documents that can only properly be read with reasonable ease by those applications -- other people who suffer from this mass case of Stockholm Syndrome. When someone fires up MS Office or OpenOffice.org just to write the equivalent of a post-it note, there is something horribly, desperately wrong with the way people use software. --=20 Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ] --VrqPEDrXMn8OVzN4 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.14 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAk4pdbcACgkQ9mn/Pj01uKWd5wCeP6ZzItk7p8kUfUj7f/YMIrUX pa4AoNGmKrkN9ptvua0Tzbm5cd3TPAOB =z6yn -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --VrqPEDrXMn8OVzN4--