how many packages shall be returned out-there as, "couldn't get it to work" ?

And it sounds as if the Z-glitch on your local net is more about Opera than Z. In brief, assuming that your evaluation of most of the contenders will be passed around in some way (?) it sounds as if the iPAQ would be seen to be much harder for an average bunch to set-up than Z (and others).

Shouldn't that count, in making the choice for a company? (See, I dunno how much personal autonomy there is in most places, where the Co. has to plan for reliable login of one? a few? models. (I could imagine wearing both hats here: less IT stress VS more choice -?-)

Now I hope you're just being fatalistic re the long-term outcome, especially re PDAs - which seem to me to be a long way from 'The Windoze Experience' anyway. However that battle gets fought though - it's probably true that the underlying OS (as with the Z) is apt to go unnoticed by many. :(

Ah if there were just one Killah Ap which would run on Z and not on the Beast..



Ashton

who hopes that the desktop Can be assaulted next - via the first 3 (not 1 or 2) Lx distros to: drop in the CD and go, presenting a pretty collection of useful office aps loadable by check-box, and a Tour of the place after it's created it. Beat the Toy-OS at 'convenience'.

Technically feasible now - have 3 of them learned to market yet?
Will M$ help - via increasingly Draconian costs, enforcements?
Have we sacrificed enough virgins?

of the order of trial - I gathered also that the Serious Student will gravitate Debianwards for er granularity eventually, maybe for the same reason a Vigor beats out a Civic :-\ufffd

I'm still casting about to steal next some modest 600 MHz or so thingie for an install, having done some homework with older (SuSE and RH) distros - which have *books* (The john is the place to grok a new OS, not the CRT, till later IMhO)

Then too, early-on I can see what use *I* can make of the adorably miniscule (teeny CD, that is) LNX-BBC troubleshooting site (courtesy of Karsten!) That slick thingie booted up just Fine on my swinky e-Machine (even) with not a single, by-your-leave-sir: your video card sux... Yup - I've 'run' Linux too :-\ufffd

I don't doubt that the latest installs are quite less fraught with "WTF will it Do Next?" than say - the W2K I have to explore for a friend before attention to Lx. I just have to get a map of the HD in my brain, and fit in the lore later about - boot-partition sizes and other picky housekeeping - after I see what the distro thought was 'average'. 56K modem, and wishing won't get a lot of the (probably driver) downloads onto a nice CD. I see overnight batch files chron jobs coming.

Thanks for friendly nag though :-)

Ashton


re above, what I meant was: One-Up the Beast via a *complete* couple-disk install from scratch, on through: a working Office suite, complete with gaudy video tour of differing levels of detail. All bulletproof. THEN - maybe some small companies can find the guts to save themselves from Beast Tax. There will Have to be at least some printed info as well, graduated from stark newbie on up to at least intermediate info. (EZ to beat M$ at That game, the cheap bastards)

Needing to download Anything (initially) will cause heart palpitations; imagine how many out there have no idea what .zip is for.. let alone a umm tarball (et al). After all.. and since W3.1 - I'll bet that DOS knowledge is fading into oblivion, in a general 'businessperson's lore. Command-line would freak such a one. :(

A.

It's about selfishness (about free time). Those of my ken who have a tad of curiosity about how stuff works, have already been urged in the Righteous direction - in the best traditions of [Do as I Say not as I do yet] :-\ufffd

Once I have a stable Lx with the major aps covered, and all that lengthy configuring.. and someone calls next with a major Doze screwup.. I Know that I'll have less and less excuse for Not suggesting: instead of RRR --> why not RLR? Hmmm?

But then :( as, 'teaching [this group] to fish' is not a likely option, well ... you can see where That leads. For many weeks.

Add the above to my general slothfulness about Most techno- detail *$%&^$ of late = and call that, inertia. But time IS running out, since XP is no possible option for me or any 'dependents'.

Star O just didn't cut it: a monolith alien to 'modularized' y'know?
Biig Problem re practicality: no Office Suite that wasn't a bit flaky. Now the new OO appears good-Enough for anyone I'd consider occasionally supporting. [/excuses from That arena]

T'was the last straw I was awaiting (as the GUIs, hdwre-detect and installs got snazzier just in the last year) And yeah: I saw some of Peter's screen shots :-)


Poco a poco.. machine hunting.
Ashton


Hey - I did play with RH 4.2! but it was a primitive experience and on a 486 - then.