Breathing Life Back Into Computing
I’m enjoying using my computer again.
It’s hard to tell if it’s one of those cyclic effects, or if the cumulative improvement of the Linux desktop has tipped the balance. I’ve found that I’m incredibly productive with the current set of tools, and the overall quality is impressive.
That sounds exaggerated (or zealous), but it really isn’t. I respect other platforms and tools, but just haven’t felt invigorated in the Windows world for a number of years. Windows software seem so muddy to me, and working on the platform seems to mess with my creative mojo.
So I’m finding that OpenOffice and the Nautilus file manager have improved enough that they are more useful than their analogs on Windows. They’re so good that I’m having fun on my PC again.
Yes, of course, you’re going to tell me I should buy a Mac. I like Apple, and Mac hardware is sexy. But Macs are expensive, especially considering that everyone has a surplus of x86 hardware. And then there’s the applications. Buying a Mac doesn’t include the $1k you’ll need to spend to outfit it with a decent set of tools (even if they are beautiful tools). PCs are everywhere, Free software is plentiful, and now the Free stuff is starting to get really good too.
OpenOffice (for the Gnome Desktop) is where I’m having the most fun. The 2.0 beta releases are stable, useful, and polished enough that they’re better than Word (which is a reasonable tool). I haven’t found any gaping holes in the Open Suite, and it is more usable than Word for production documentation tasks. Even though Word has more features, OpenOffice focuses more on writing large, shared-style documents.
The suite is so good that I’m starting to wonder if Microsoft’s Office even matters anymore. There aren’t a lot of advances to be made in the Office Suite world, except in utility for specific tasks, and improved quality. Microsoft has somehow missed the large-scale user class, despite adding dozens of collaboration features. I still find Word a bear when trying to write anything larger than a hundred pages, not to mention its continued weak style management and small set of weird bugs. How can Microsoft Office continue to demand $400/person, when the Free tools work so well?
Worse, how can Microsoft compete with something that moves so quickly? Free software is relentless; it continues to improve despite the inability of any one group of developers. Microsoft, like most companies, can’t react as quickly as the seemingly endless supply of devoted developers of the Free world.