“While we are all busy scrounging around the Internet for
the latest and greatest to make our lives easier, it’s easy to
forget that what we’re looking for may be right here. Sounds a
bit like your columnist is busy misquoting Dorothy at the end of
The Wizard of Oz (the movie, not the book). Well, pay no attention
to the man writing that last paragraph, and follow me for a tour of
your Linux home.”
“Later this week, I will be visiting a client who is considering
deploying Linux on the desktop. Personally, I think this is a great
idea whose time has definitely come. While I won’t know his real
reasons for considering Linux (at least until after you have read
this column), Windows 2000 is probably part of his reason. That,
and Office 2000, and the hardware to support it all; need I go on?
The real question we might ask ourselves, though, is this: “Why
isn’t Linux on every desktop already?” The great fear of
too-complex administration is a likely answer.”
“KDE and GNOME have forever changed the world’s view of Linux.
When I boot up my old notebook to show people, they see KDE running
as my desktop. Actually, what they see is a nice, friendly GUI that
looks a little like what they are used to. When they ask me about
the difficulty of running and administering their Linux system, I
generally don’t point them to the web tools I described in the last
two columns (well, not immediately, especially if they are coming
from a very Windows background). I point them to their desktops.
Then, armed with The Power of X (sounds like a comic book hero), I
show them how they (or I) can remotely administer all the desktops
in their office from a single workstation.”