jtd wrote:
On Friday 12 October 2007 18:10, vivek khurana wrote:
On 10/12/07, jtd jtd@mtnl.net.in wrote:
You can switch now and save yourself a load of pain 2 yrs downhill or not at all and sink in the lake with the millstone firmly tied to your head.
We keep hearing this every year and life just goes on smoothly in the CSS world. (Closed Source Software) Doomsday gets an extension every year.
c) Will you use Oo, if Oo failed to export files in any format other than odf ? Not even RTF or text or HTML ?
Moot question. Oo exports in all open formats and several closed ones too. So does inkscape.
Inkscape is the libre equivalent of Corel Draw and the industry uses the .cdr format, which is not recognised by Inkscape. There ends the FOSS presentation. CDR files are regularly exchanged between suppliers, vendors and customers.
d) How will you make a design if the tools required to design are not yet implemented ?
thats shooting in the air. But use the tools that are available it's extremely rare that the final result cannot be achieved with some combo of tools available, and usually the solution to a particular problem is only a few emails away.
Industry does not use libre file formats.
e) There are plethora of applications which do not run on Linux that doesnt make those applications inferior.
That is you hiding behind an imaginary wall. Any app which does not run on linux is CRAP - not just inferior. And any closed app is vastly inferior to a FOSS app irrespective of this or that feature. you will know when such apps bite you. Till then have fun.
That's imagination running wild. You are mixing between a finished product and manufacturing / upgradation process. A finished product has to work and do what's expected of it. Libre software has not reached that stage for many industry level data formats. Libre software can overtake CSS in performance and functionality but currently not many want to sit behind the wheel to do that. Till then CSS will hold a strong presence in the market.
The advantages of using foss far outweigh any disadvantage.
Its not about advantage or disadvantage. Before that, it has to actually work for the company.
And again the disadvatages have proven to be mostly imaginary or very temporary. Coversely most of the touted advantages of closed app have actually proven to be millstones that killed them. The advantages are actually desperate compromises that are extremely hardware / oss / assumptions dependent and none of the compromises have been peer reviewed.
CSS is paid software so the software company always has the sword hanging over its head and users can criticise it, curse it, holler at the makers till they come up with better upgrades. Libre software is like free accommodation in an Ashram. Life in the ashram is dull and placid, with no social interaction but those who cannot afford their own accommodation have no choice than to live there. The ashram authorities feel they have already done a great job so no improvisation is needed and they punish anyone who complains. When libre software comes out of its ashram mentality and caters to the industry, it will automatically become popular and leave CSS far behind. Till then at least lets accept facts as they are.