Munich, Germany goes Kubuntu!

[Tom_ZeCat]

Well, just wait awhile, investigate around, and the truth about "Munich moving back to Linux" rises to the surface.

As I suspected, it's all hyperbolic propaganda, probably funded and orchestrated by Microsoft and echoed around the web by Microsoft fanbois. Munich is NOT moving back to Windows.


It seems that the newly elected mayor, Reiter, and his second in command, Schmidt, are the ones beating the drums to go back to proprietary software. Both are admitted Microsoft fans, and Reiter prefers Outlook for his groupware. At the same time, Microsoft released a "report" claiming that rather than saving $13 million, the move to Linux cost Munich over $100 million, which is ludicrous but not out of line with similar funded Microsoft "reports" and ad claims, like the "Highly Reliable Times" nonsense. Add to that report the fact that Microsoft announced that they are moving their German headquarters to Munich and things begin to add up. One has to ask how much influen$e MS had in Munich's politics and will have in "persuading" the city council to force a move back to Windows. It's a one sided battle as usual. MS has all the money and influence and history has proven that they aren't above using unethical and sometimes illegal methods. Again, think of the OOXML debacle, or OLPC, or the Australian charity, or the many, many one person entrepreneurs who were courted by Microsoft until MS engineers could look at the person's technology and then incorporate it into their OS. I can think of only one, a Frenchman, who won $2M in a long running court case that ruled against MS.

It could turn out that after the report is released it could trigger a more massive move to Linux and OpenSource software solutions than just the 15,000 workers in Munich.

I hope so. I also hope that the City of Tübingen in Baden-Württemberg goes for Linux, preferably Kubuntu. That's where KDE was first developed. It also happens to be the city where I was an exchange student. My fondness for Tübingen was a reason behind my choosing a KDE-based distro, that plus KDE is excellent.

Btw, Stac Electronics also won their lawsuit against Microsoft. They're the company that made the disk-compression utility, Stacker. Microsoft negotiated with them about making Stacker part of MS-DOS, learned all their trade secrets, and then pulled out of negotiations, creating their own competing product.

These claims about going an organization paying more money to use Linux than Microsoft are laughable. They usually boil down to the claim that you'll have no technical support for something free that you download and then you'll end up hiring tech experts who cost more than the cost of the software that includes tech support. That's a load of BS. For every major distro and every major Linux app (like LibreOffice), there's free tech support available online.

[GreyGeek]

Besides Stac there was GoPen.

Microsoft usually lumped the cost of Windows licenses and support into the cost of the hardware, making it appear insignificant. However, when comparing Windows and Linux hardware costs wash out, making $0 for Linux and productivity software significantly less than an MS OS license plus license fees for EVERY productivity app used.

[Tom_ZeCat]

I always thought I needed Office (MS, open, etc), when using my files. I found out Abiword and Gnumeric work just as good and a _lot_ lighter. What's that ubiquitous saying, YMMV.

AbiWord has a lot of potential, IMO. For me it just doesn't quite do enough. I tried using it recently just for kicks, but for the life of me could not figure out how to set it to double space. Its turn on page numbers command is simpler, but often times I need a header with my page numbers, something like:
Story Title / page 1 of 32

[Goeroeboeroe]

Of course LibreOffice also runs on Windows, but at least it doesn't look like Munich has plans to move away from LibreOffice. And that deputy said the formats were the biggest problem. Staying with LibreOffice doesn't solve that. So it still doesn't look like Munich is going back to Windows.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/City-...d-469695.shtml

[GreyGeek]

Of course LibreOffice also runs on Windows, but at least it doesn't look like Munich has plans to move away from LibreOffice. And that deputy said the formats were the biggest problem. Staying with LibreOffice doesn't solve that. So it still doesn't look like Munich is going back to Windows.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/City-...d-469695.shtml

The formats complaint is just a smoke screen to justify their no doubt paid opposition to Linux. My experience writing software for state government is that over a fifteen year period legislative bodies, which usually have no clue about the complexities of computerizing their legislative dreams, make sufficient changes in laws that no program or spreadsheet template would be continually useful over that time. Modifications to existing software, or writing entirely new ones, would be undertaken about every three to five years, or when a different political party takes power. Claims of "incompatibility" because some LO spreadsheet function doesn't work the exact same way that a similar Excel function works are spacious, and the exact opposite claim can be made to justify NOT moving back to Office.

Munich has a financial history detailing the license fees and support costs for using Windows and Office, and for using Linux. It's all a matter of comparing expenditures during the two periods, and ignoring "reports" influenced by special interests. I have no doubt that Munich has done that more than once over several widows of time and that is why they are still with Linux.

[xennex81]

Most of you are extremely one-sided fanboyism in this thread. Someone can be a microsoft-fan, but apparently no one here is a linux-fan. If someone chooses Microsoft, it is because they are affiliated with Microsoft, often financially, but if someone chooses Linux, it certainly isn't because they are sided with Linux, at least ideologically.

Wake up and see it for what it is. There are certainly people who want to go back to Microsoft, and probably for good reasons. User experience in Linux is still not up to par with Microsoft by a far stretch.

I have used Linux for some time now and my need is driven by.... Word processing software. For some reason, whether you like it or not... I completely hate and dislike both Microsoft Office and LibreOffice. I have not often used MS Office in the past but since the " Ribbon " it is completely worthless to me now. I cannot stand that interface. I cannot write in that interface. I need my mind to be clear, and my mind can only be clear if I am comfortable.

LibreOffice (or OpenOffice) has been horrendous from the start, easily as bad as the GIMP in terms of the user interface. Take any user interface expert or enthusiast (it is often the same thing) and they will CRACK DOWN on the user interface elements and structure and QUALITY of the GIMP and LibreOffice.

It is just horrendous. I could sit down with any one of these applications and devise improvements within 5 minutes.

It's that obvious.

The ribbon is just ugly and a ...fly in the face of the human mind. It is not congruent, not intuitive, not workable. It is something you need to "learn" in advance or in "ignoration" of what is proper for you. You don't like it, but after a while you can get used to it. It never quite works as a pleasing thing.

That's the same with the search features of the Windows 7 start bar, and the Unity Dock. Searching each and every time is not a dependable way to use your computer. You need fixed ways of doing things. Not repeating search terms over and over. Search with filters is fine, but do not replace the path leading to the result. I was working with a company that produced a content management system (just a system for storing documents) (actually a DMS) and they had all the documents floating in the air with no direct access paths other than search facilities. They said the clients were content, but I never believed that. Without a way to place your document, it cannot be intuitive. You first remember WHERE you put something, before you remember how it is named (which is also a WHERE, so to speak). You remember dates easily, filenames less easily. But locations, physical locations, are easiest. That's just the mind.

Now, to keep it short, my only interest at this point is Calligra Word/Author.

Before I was writing in HTML but there are not any good (free) HTML compozers that I know of. There was "Kompozer" but it sucked. BlueGriffon is okay but unmaintained. I need a WYSIWYG way in which you can see the formatting. I need to be able to write in formatting without going LaTex. Wiki format is nice, HTML is good or better because there is so much formatting to it, visual makeup or markup. CSS is nice. I do not know how professional authors do it, or if there are professional authors. I just want to write, and I want to write good. Good stuff.

Calligra is extremely weak at this point. That is why I want to code for it. I am seriously at a lack of good writing software.

I think KATE is a weak program. The way the user interface (looks) are designed, at least. Try to print with an autowrapped indented piece of text or code. Try to make a PDF. It fails in the colouring department. There are bugs, and it is ugly with the margins and all.

Notepad (in Windows) is good, at least they haven't touched that yet. But it is too meagre.

Wordpad (from Windows XP) is too ugly nowadays for my mind. Wordpad (from Windows 7) had the Ribbon. Ugly.

TextEdit (from Mac OS X) has always been ugly.

Vi (from the console, VIM) is not good enough, too hard to work with, too error-prone, not user-friendly at all, though they do not want to know that.

I am a writer by trade, a software writer, but also a documentation writer. I like those things. I am good at writing. But my soft... my tools fail me.

Calligra Word and BlueGriffon are the only tools that look at least a bit reasonable to me. Not a cluttered interface, not hideously designed markup elements and control structures. Yes I am a qualified person to say such things. I failed my user interface course in University ;-).

Because I had to summarize a book. Be gone with that. UGH.

There is also another thing that comes close and it is Scrivener. But I haven't had much luck with it. There is a Linux beta, it works well, from what I've seen.

The only other tool I use is Evernote, but Evernote has failings in the app for Android, it corrupts your data. BAD THING. It corrupts the spacing of all written text, at times. Single spaces turn to double spaces turn to no space, at times. At places and times.

Evernote has an elegant interface, it is the prettiest thing I know.

At least, the Android app used to be reasonably elegant, they ruined some of that now. (Changed the element that says what to choose for a new note. Now suddenly you have to choose between many forms of notes, when all I want to do is make a text-note, each and every time).

Calligra looks reasonably elegant. That is why I want to choose it, or invest in it, sometime. However, it seems the Kubuntu experiment itself is failing, I cannot get my hands around it, there are too many failings. Things that are just not nice or not elegant. I now have a Start Menu (KDE Menu) that is just wildly badly contrasted with pure white and pure black (because of the Oxygen theme). I can choose the Glassified theme and then the contrast is somewhat less. But I don't have the time or energy to keep searching for themes, nor do I have the skill and willingness to start making one myself.

Now Kubuntu is moving to 15.04 and it is bad. And it won't be good for quite some time. I am now currently in Ubuntu Server 14.10 with kubuntu-desktop installed. It is reasonably nice, stable. I hid the one failing icon. Everything looks swell except the start menu for the Oxygen theme. Perhaps I go back to Air, perhaps I try a few others, but I have done that and I've been there.

I'm ready to move back to Windows to try again there. I hate to lose the power of programming in Linux. But I can perhaps do that on my server. I am done with the constant missing elements and missing features. Not being able to make a screenshot of a window, for one. CalligraWord, AbiWord, what is else, I do not like the sound of Softmaker. I just need a cozy place to Write In. I do not have to make all the markups, but a decent amount of nice-looking formatting is a must.

"Opposition to Linux". Linux is bad enough to not need any opposition, it will take care of that itself.

That is all I can say about it. I can see a dead road in Windows. A road that leads to further demise, but all the world is left without good tools. What else? Mac OS whatever they have? iOffice? iWorks? Maybe. I don't like OS X. It looks too fancy, too crafty. Not my thing. Windows has long been good and Windows 7 looks nice, but the Ribbon ruins everything for me.

I am left without tools here. I have yet to install a stable version of Kubuntu on this computer. I will attempt shortly a 14.04.2 Server install and just do kubuntu-desktop on that and just keep that running for a while. But I do not know how to revert or prevent the startup of the window manager. Perhaps just "service lightdm stop". I don't know how to control it. I am left without regards, and without recourse. And I want to write a book. I seriously want to write a book.

The best thing I have found thus far is.... think it or not.....

DOKUWIKI.

What about that. Writing a book in a wiki software. How bout that. Having to change the theme to your liking before you can work in it. Being a colourblind person and having to change themes. Yuck. Like it?

[Tom_ZeCat]

I got frustrated with bugginess at upgrades and decided to go with Kubuntu 14.04/LTS. So far it's been a great move. This thing has been stable. I don't need the latest cool enhancements. Those cool enhancements often meant I had to troubleshoot something when I had work to get done.

I hated Microsoft's Ribbon interface for Office. My first solution was just to stick to an old version of Office. Later I went to LibreOffice, which I like a lot better. I'm surprised you don't like the interface. I like it just fine. The only thing I don't like is you can't assign a macro to Ctrl+[2 keys] like you can in Word. I would like to learn the programing skills to go in and fix that. If you don't like LibreOffice, there are other options. There's Softmaker Office and Kingsoft Office. I have Softmaker and like it, but not as well as Libre. Their autocorrect does not come with a built-in English file for correcting things like "taht" automatically. A guy at SoftMaker gave me a German file he had created and I made one from the English one in LibreOffice. SoftMaker also doesn't have a macro system. However, SoftMaker has a built-in option of using WordStar cursor-diamond commands if you turn it on. That's a big plus for me. For years I've always programmed those in. SoftMaker also has special tools for German that no other word processor does such as alerting you when something is misspelled according to the reformed German spelling, but spelled correct according to the old. I use LibreOffice for writing in English and French and SoftMaker for writing in German. Kingsoft Office is okay. It's actually a Libre/Open Office derivative. If you install it, you get a Ribbon interface, but you have the option of switching to a pulldown menu one. That's what Microsoft should have done instead of forcing everyone to learn their stupid Ribbon. There are always options. For writing articles, books, etc. I've found LibreOffice Writer highly capable. I do wish there were a Linux version of Final Draft. There's no Linux equivalent that even comes close to FD for scriptwriting. I've written several stage plays in FD. It's a joy not to have to screw with script formatting. You just write your play and focus on that. Alas, they refuse to come out with a Linux version. There's only Windows and Mac. I tried CeltX, but it's total garbage compared to FD. Their stage play template wasn't even a standard Samuel French or Dramatist Guild one. Then there's Dramatica, a program for crafting your stories. It's extremely useful, but there's no Linux version. These are the reasons I keep Windows 7 under VirtualBox on my PC. If I could, I would dump Windows altogether, but I need these programs too much. I'm in the process of dumping Quicken in favor of KMymoney finally. Quicken finally pissed me off enough to dump it. The 2012 version quit being able to download my transactions, so I had to pay for the damn thing AGAIN. Then the 2015 version wouldn't install properly, so suddenly I was stuck with nothing. I was furious and got a refund from Amazon. Now I've got my account stuff moved over to KMoney and am really hoping I like it.

I need to build a web page soon and will probably be busting out an old version of Dreamweaver that I have. Like you, I used Kompozer. It was adequate for a while, but they're not updating it. An update to Kubuntu all of a sudden trashed Kompozer's menus. That was frustrating. I've found something called Amaya, which seems decent, but I'll have to learn a new program if I use it. It would be easier to just install Dreamweaver under VirtualBox because I know it.

I need to learn Gimp. I used to do photography. If I start doing it again, I'll need to image edit. I was using Ulead PhotoImpact, but it's now abandonware. Most other photographers used Photoshop and Lightroom, but that ****'s expensive. (Yes, I know, easy to pirate, but not exactly legal.) The two poor man's photoshops, PhotoImpact and Paint Shop Pro, served me well.

In short, there are always options. Nothing will be exactly how you would have done it if you had developed the software, but there are good options nonetheless.

[xennex81]

Wow, you've used a lot of software.

In the past I was using all the pirated versions. I am no longer such a person. I am of the age that I want to buy my tools, or use something else.

And if I create something else, I want it to build to a better world. This is also a reason I am focussing on Linux now. Perhaps my aid will come in handy. Thus far, I am just searching for a common ground, or a stable ground. Beneath my feet. I don't have it yet.

I want to install Ubuntu Server 14.04.2 with Kubuntu Desktop on it. It has a weird initrd with bad resolution for the text screens (tty, alt-f1) and a completely non-graphical boot-system. Nevertheless, Kubuntu 14.10 also had a weird-text-mode Plymouth boot thing. I currently prefer the bad and rusty text-mode of the Server install. Perhaps not after a while. I don't know. I can always reinstall.

There are plenty of good designers but it seems most of them are working for bad employers, or not working or being employed at all. I want to do more work myself, I have so much good to offer.

But I seriously lack the tools that I feel comfortable in. Thus far it has been a long search. I am hoping to fix up DokuWiki and do more work on that. It is at least something simple and worthwhile. At the same time I still want to work at Calligra Word/Author.

The strange thing is, in the past I had every tool available to me, and everything worked well. I just used commercial tools. Now I am having to resort to free tools that I need to improve myself.

I hate it. I don't like it. It is so bad. The free versions are so bad, the free software is so bad as compared to that thing of the past. I really don't know where to get started. I was writing scripts a few months ago. I enjoyed that. Now I need to orient myself on a longer period of finding a basis for doing some real work....

[Goeroeboeroe]

If you really think everything free is that bad, why don't you simply buy your software?
I've been working with computers from almost the beginning, and at the moment I work with iOS, Windows Phone, Windows 7 en 8, OS X, Android (different versions) and Linux. Linux is my main systeem. Am I a masochist? No. Linux is by far the easiest and best. And I think I can compare the different systems.
To come back on the original subject: Munich is still using Linux, so the story about going back to Windows apparently was not true.

[Tom_ZeCat]

I've been using Quicken and KMymoney side by side all day and have to begrudgingly admit that Quicken is better. They pissed me off big time, but the software runs better when it actually runs. I was POed about Intuit suddenly yanking out the rug from under me when the 2012 version was working fine. Then the 2015 version wouldn't work after I shelled out the bucks for it. It's their loss. I refunded my purchase at Amazon and luckily found a 2014 version for barely any money at a second-hand store. That one works.

KMymoney was working, but after I downloaded transactions via a web connect file, it didn't match them up as well as Quicken does. The result was it recording a deposit twice, making it look like I had way more money than I really do.

There's never a perfect system for everyone's needs. I love LibreOffice. I have no complaints about Calc, which I use only for simple budgets and lists. I wish Writer would let you assign macros to Ctrl+[2 strokes] and I wish it could format play scripts as easily as Final Draft -- either that or I wish there were a Linux version of Final Draft. I love Dolphin -- no complaints there. I like Kubuntu's interface just fine. My only complaints have been some bugginess when the new versions have come out. I've solved that by just sticking to 14.04/LTS. At some point I might upgrade, but I'm in no hurry. I value stability over the latest gadgets, which is why I was willing to stick with Quicken 2012 if it would have kept the ability to download transactions. I stuck with WordStar for years after it was orphaned because I liked its interface. At one point it just became too obsolete to use.

At some point I want to set up a twin desktop towers system. I'll have two separate CPUs, one with Kubuntu, the other with Windows 7 connected to the same keyboard, monitor, and mouse via KVM. Then I'll store all my data to the same networked external hard drive. That way I'll be able to work in Kubuntu all day and when I need Windows, just flick a switch and have it. They'll be separate PCs and therefore won't affect the performance of the other one. I'll have no need to run anything under VirtualBox.

But back to the original subject. It's great that Munich is using Kubuntu. I'd love to see Tübingen, Germany do the same. That's the city where I was an exchange student and where KDE was invented.

[Goeroeboeroe]

I wish Writer would let you assign macros to Ctrl+[2 strokes]

It can. If you record a macro and give it a name, you can add a shortcut to it, including Ctrl+... The main problem is almost every Ctrl+... is already in use, but you can change that too. So if you want in LibreOffice to use Ctrl+C for a macro, that's possible.
I've a Dutch system, so the names are maybe a bit different, but this is how to do it:
Open Extra -> Adjust (or Change or whatever it's named in English). Choose the second tab Keyboard.
In the upper left window go to the shortcut you want to use for your macro.
In the lower left window tab to your macro. In my system my macros are hidden pretty deep under the strange names LibreOffice-macros -> user -> Standard -> Website.
If you've got the combination macro/shortcut you want to use, click on the tab on the right with adjust, change, or whatever it's called.
On my system with LibreOffice 4.2.8.2 that works.

[xennex81]

If you really think everything free is that bad, why don't you simply buy your software?

Not everything. InkScape is very good, from what I've seen ;-).

Chrome is very good, and the new Opera is also excellent from what I've seen. Android is a reasonably good system I believe. But people make money off of that. In Linux, mostly, no one makes any money based on the perspective or experience of users. There's no market for it, no marketplace. I would suggest at some point for a marketplace to be introduced, e.g. an ability to run android apps but it's too far-fetched for that. Linux would come around very well if it could run android apps and android apps could be purchased actually through some Google invention. [And if it could run them well.]

I've been working with computers from almost the beginning, and at the moment I work with iOS, Windows Phone, Windows 7 en 8, OS X, Android (different versions) and Linux. Linux is my main systeem. Am I a masochist? No. Linux is by far the easiest and best. And I think I can compare the different systems.

I'm sorry, I don't think your experience alone puts much weight in the basket. I myself have been working with computers since 1990. Sorry, doesn't compare. How you can say Linux is "easiest" is beyond me. I was just reading a thread on how to add samba shares to your system (mounting a samba share from another computer). The user was a newbie and was told to "add a line to fstab". The user went like "fstab? I'm using dolphin". I myself tried doing what was suggested. There is apparently no system to automatically update fstab entries based on some configuration like that. I have had to install the "cifs-utils" package. How did I know? I did "apt show smbclient" and at the end of that it said that smbmounts require that cifs-utils. I didn't know what cifs was. This is not easy, at least not for a beginner. I have had samba shares for many years across my computers, beginning in 1999-2000 on a network in my student's home and prior to that in LAN-parties. It was always easy in Windows. There was just one way, and that way worked.

To come back on the original subject: Munich is still using Linux, so the story about going back to Windows apparently was not true.

Actually it was true, only the headline was false. There are several prominent figures (apparently) that would like to go back to Windows, but the council itself (that doesn't have to work with the Kubuntu computers) doesn't want to go there. So you see, the situation is more detailed, more rich and more complex than a simple "is true/ is not true". Apparently you are right and we won't see a move back soon. It costs money. The council will not approve that, probably. There are just a few (and probably a great many) people that have gripes. Just make sure they don't upgrade to 15.04 ;-). But they are probably on a LTS version anyhow.


So why don't I buy my software? Buy what then? Winamp is very poor these days. DreamWeaver I've never used. WinRAR is too expensive for what it does. I buy or have Bought Windows 8.1 and it is very mediocre, poorest purchase in years. I was buying it for my netbook that I no longer have . I don't know about any good HTML editors for Windows. I have bought or tried to buy or donated to XYPlorer which is an alternate file manager that is quite lacking. I dislike what they did in Windows 7 to Explorer. I said for no reason not that it is a strange thing. I consider there to be no very good software these days.

I have been doubting my move to GIMP versus Photoshop. Photoshop is rather expensive to rent.! Krita is better? I don't have money for that stuff now. I lost all my money this last 9 months. I have been "picked bald." Or plucked dry. Whatever it means. I was willing to pay 60€/month provided I started making money. For the entire suite. But it is a lot of money now.

[Tom_ZeCat]

I'm sorry, I don't think your experience alone puts much weight in the basket. I myself have been working with computers since 1990. Sorry, doesn't compare. How you can say Linux is "easiest" is beyond me. I was just reading a thread on how to add samba shares to your system (mounting a samba share from another computer). The user was a newbie and was told to "add a line to fstab". The user went like "fstab? I'm using dolphin". I myself tried doing what was suggested. There is apparently no system to automatically update fstab entries based on some configuration like that. I have had to install the "cifs-utils" package. How did I know? I did "apt show smbclient" and at the end of that it said that smbmounts require that cifs-utils. I didn't know what cifs was. This is not easy, at least not for a beginner.

Linux can be easy for a newbie under the right circumstances. I agree with you that the tasks you describe are hard for a beginner. However, my roommate is nearly computer illiterate and he uses Kubuntu with relative ease. This is because I set it up for him and his needs are modest. He does his budget in LibreOffice Calc after I set up a template for him. He also puts videos from his digital camera card onto his laptop with Dolphin. Not hard at all. He burns music CDs with K3b and he backs his data up with FreeFileSync. All this stuff is really easy to do. Kubuntu was a good choice for him because the poor performance by Windows for updates and the running of anti-virus software were annoying him. However, when Kubuntu got buggy at after an upgrade, he needed my help to fix it. I put him on 14.04/LTS. From that point on, I've made it a policy that any newbie I turn on to Kubuntu I put them on LTS. So a newbie can use Linux with ease if 1) their needs are modest and 2) they know where they can get support (such as from me in the case of my roommate or this forum in the case of someone else). Someone at my roommate's low skill level would definitely need some kind of tech support with Windows also.

I have been doubting my move to GIMP versus Photoshop. Photoshop is rather expensive to rent.! Krita is better? I don't have money for that stuff now. I lost all my money this last 9 months. I have been "picked bald."

I'm planning on getting good at using Gimp. I'm not good at it just because I haven't used it that much. I have PhotoImpact installed under VirtualBox/Windows 7, and I'm highly skilled at it. When I need to image edit something, it's way easier to just open up the program that I'm good at and go for it. There are Youtube videos on how to use Gimp, and other tutorials on the net. I originally got good at PI because I couldn't afford Photoshop and I had access to some very good tutorials on the web. The big advantage of using Gimp would be the ability to run it straight in Kubuntu with no need to use VirtualBox and all the resources that uses. I would recommend that you use the Youtube tutorials to get up to speed on Gimp. You won't have to pay a cent for it. If you try and absolutely hate it, then the poor man's Photoshops are PhotoImpact and Paint Shop Pro, both of which are owned by Corel. PI is orphaned now, but you might be able to get it dirt cheap. Paint Shop Pro is probably about a hundred bucks, but if you can find an older version, you should be able to get it a lot cheaper. The older versions usually are just fine. You rarely need the very latest features. I run Quicken on a separate little netbook. That's been a good move, as I don't have to pull up VirtualBox every time I need to enter a transaction.

Chrome is very good, and the new Opera is also excellent from what I've seen. Android is a reasonably good system I believe. But people make money off of that. In Linux, mostly, no one makes any money based on the perspective or experience of users. There's no market for it, no marketplace.

I suspect there's more marketplace for Linux than companies realize. SoftMaker came out with a Linux version of their suite. So did the Writer's Café (another tool similar to Dramatica). There could be money made in tech support. If PCs were sold with Kubuntu or some other distro pre-installed that included 6 months of tech support, the manufacturer could sell tech support after that. Or they could use some other timeline. The thing that's common with most Linux distros and Windows is that much of the GUI-based stuff is pretty easy and the command line things are hard for a novice. Almost any operating system has certain things that are easy and other things that are hard, depending on the level of skill of the user. I wish they would bust the myth that Linux users will never pay for software. I for one am not opposed to paying money for something that I want to run on my Linux PC. I wish Final Draft and Dramatica were available for it. I would buy those programs in a heartbeat for Linux if I could.

[life0riley]

...

Notepad (in Windows) is good, at least they haven't touched that yet. But it is too meagre.

...

Notepad++ has more features than Notepad if you are working in a Windows environment.

https://notepad-plus-plus.org

[Tom_ZeCat]

Notepad++ has more features than Notepad if you are working in a Windows environment.

https://notepad-plus-plus.org

I haven't tried that. I haven't felt the need to replace Notepad. However, I have replaced WordPad, which I don't like. My program of choice is Jarte:
http://www.jarte.com/

First thing I do to it after install is change the interface to the simple one.