Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 11:50:11 -0500
From: Craig Goodrich <craig@airnet.net>
To: pgrote@i1.net
Subject: comments on your CompuNotes newsletter #127: The Edge Cuts Both Ways... 

>> Why oh why do people always think that something free can
   overtake something that costs money? 

Microsoft seems to think so; that's how they've waged war
on Netscape.

>> When was the last time you saw a LEARNING LINUX IN 24 HOURS book
   at your local Waldens or Barnes and Noble?

 Sams' Teach Yourself Linux in 24 Hours, by Bill Ball et al
 Linux : Unleashing the Workstation in Your PC, by Stefan Strobel, et al
 Linux for Dummies, by Jon Hall, et al 
 Peter Norton's Guide to Linux, by Peter Norton 
 Teach Yourself StarOffice for Linux in 24 Hours, by Nicholas Wells

      -- and that was just the start of the beginners' section.  Maybe
you should try a different bookstore.

>> According to Dataquest 9 out of 10 companies use Office now, so
   there aren't many people who don't.

Yup.  In 1978, three-quarters of the word processing market was
held by IBM Displaywriters.  12 years later the same was true
of Word Perfect.  Does the phrase "dynamic market" ring a bell?

>> Good luck finding [a consultant] who can tell a Linux from a 
   UNIX prompt or even one who can set up a mailing list using 
   StarOffice.

Gee, does that mean the serious shortage of NT administrators
that I've been hearing about is over?  And why is it necessary
to "tell a Linux from a UNIX prompt", since at the application
software level Linux IS Unix?  And as to setting up a mailing
list with StarOffice, any experienced secretary who has suffered
through the successive learning curves of Word 5, 6, and 7 will
have no major problem with this; if she does, she can just go
to her local Waldens and pick up the last book on the list above....

Admittedly, you're not going to wake up tomorrow morning and
find Linux on every desktop before 9 o'clock.  But more and
more of the technical user community -- net administrators,
engineers, designers, and so on -- are discovering the
advantages of Linux on the desktop -- and that was where the PC
itself started out in the early '80s.  

The only two constants in this business are a) it'll be cheaper
and faster next year [unless it's from Microsoft], and b)
everybody's predictions are always wrong.  So perhaps a little
more humility is in order.....

On that cheery note, best wishes --

Craig Goodrich
Rural Village Systems
<craig@airnet.net>