[NTLUG:Discuss] [indiana-discuss] How good will Indiana be for desktop computing?

[Bob Netherton]

On Mon, 2008-02-18 at 09:38 -0800, Tim Bray wrote:

> Have you used a recent Ubuntu?  

Yes I have.  And to make my point I use the Ubuntu GNOME
themes on my Indiana and Nevada desktop - and when someone
asks, a uname -a shows that Solaris can look the same.

> A lot of this stuff Just Works out of the box.

True.  And a software finding service would be a nice
applet to throw in the mix.  But the foundation behind all
of this is a multi-tier repository system and OpenSolaris has
this with our friends from blastwave, sunfreeware, et al.


>   Plug in a digital camera.  Plug in a scanner.  Right-click  
> on a .tiff or .avi.  I agree that in principle the same stuff is  
> probably more-or-less available if you understand what the pieces are  
> that you're missing and how to get them. 

And Unbuntu isn't free from that problem either.  Lots and lots of
wiki pages and php forums helping Ubuntu users find what they are
looking for.

>  But it's not the same. 

No, it's not exactly the same.   But it's also not as different as some
with an axe to grind like to point out (and don't misunderstand Tim -
not throwing you in that mix at all, you are trying to help).
But the original premise was that there was very little software and
that's completely erroneous.

And quite frankly, and apologies in advance if this is not the case, but
the original email felt a bit like a seminar posting (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seminar_caller) for a reference - or
Astroturfing if you prefer.   And Euan, if your questions were genuine
then I take that comment back, offer an apology and suggest the
blastwave repository as the answer to some of what you are looking
for.


Bob