[scribus] Scribus in place of Pagemaker?

[Jeffrey Silverman]

Hi. I'm glad you're looking at Mint and MEPIS. And one could argue
that discussing the finer points of general public viability of Open
Source software is on-topic for this list. Marginally on-topic, maybe.

Anyway, 95% of the distros are niche distros and can be ignored.
Unfortunately, that still leaves a couple dozen "end user" distros!
But really, there are only maybe a half dozen or ten distros that are
truly appropriate for a new user to switch to. Probably, that is too
many. That is why I've decided to recommend only two these days,
Ubuntu or Mint. And I change the recommendation based on who I am
recommending to and what I know about their needs. Usually, though, I
just recommend Mint because it has all the goodness of Ubuntu and is
more polished.

As far as the "boxed, in-store" software need, I think that is a
leftover preference from a previous millenium. Today you can get
almost anything that is made of bits by downloading it. The need to
stick a disc in your computer is, frankly, FAST becoming obsolete.
Once this new crop of college students, or maybe the crop or two after
them, make it into the market, the desire of many shoppers to buy a
disc is going to start to disappear. That, combined with the spreading
presence of broadband. And the familiarity of the younger set with
Open Source. I mean, everyone has used Firefox (well, not everyone,
but you get what I'm going for, I hope). And many more people are
starting to realize that FF has a lot of cousins as far as the
development and distribution components go (e.g. You can't buy FF in a
store).

I'm no prognosticator, that's for sure, but that's just my take on it.
My opinion is justifiably skewed by my skill set, though, so take it
with a grain of salt.

Also, Ubuntu, and Mint even more so, has very very very VERY easy to
use "Add Software" tools. Very highly abstracted, one-click type
deals. You will never ever want to have to deal with the old CD-in,
wait for install, type in looooong CD key, commercial software route
of the past once you see Ubuntu's "Add/Remove Software" or Mint's
"MintInstall" tools.

Okay, so, I'm rambling again. Sorry. I just love this stuff, can't help it.

Later...

On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 9:27 PM, Frank Swygert <farna at att.net> wrote:
<snip>
> John, I've run the MEPIS and Mint live CDs. I might try another, but I doubt
> it. Those two are pretty robust and highly recommended for noobs, though I
> have looked at FreeSpire and considered it at one time. I'm not going to get
> caught up in trying a lot of different distros right now -- takes too much
> time even with live CDs! I want something that's pretty well a total package
<snip!>
> The only thing I DON'T like about Linux is all the distros! I know, most of
> you think that's a strength, but it seems to fracture the community so much.
> Of course now Linux has matured to the point that there are really only two
> graphical desktops environments to speak of, which helps. I know there are
> more, but Gnome and KDE are the two top contenders, it seems the few others
> are a very small percentage. When it gets to the point that you can install
> a program and it will automatically look for then install what's missing, or
> at least tell you what's missing, Linux might have a real chance of
> competing with Windows. It's almost there! Now if stores would just carry
> some of the better distros (but then THAT'S confusing to Windows users
> also... why more than one version of the same OS, and which one do I
> choose?) so the less technical people could try it, and the open-source
> people would realize that boxed software on store shelves is mandatory for
> Linux to really compete, everything would be fine! Not being able to put
> software in stores is a problem with GNU licensed software. But I'm getting
> way off topic for this list!
<snip>

-- 
Jeff Silverman
jeffrey.d.silverman at gmail.com