Re: Desktop-specific Kernel Patch - win4lin?
Am Saturday, 2. October 2004 23:14 schrieb Michael Banck:
>
> > a bootsplashscreen,
>
> Well, that seems to be desirable at some point (Ubuntu is aiming for it,
> AFAIK), and I don't see why support for it should not be in the stock
> Debian kernel.
>
> > performance improvements like seen in other distributions and
>
> That's pretty vague.
>
I know - it's just that I don't really know enough about the possibilites
there myself. I've just got the impression that there are ways to improve
performance beyond what the vanilla kernel does without some kind of 'dirty
hacks' - Yoper always comes to my mind, but I really can't say what exactly
they did to their kernel.
> > > What's wrong with using WINE or Crossover Office? You do not need to
> > > use a kernel patch for that (and in case Win4Lin needs a valid
> > > Windows license, you don't need that either)
> >
> > I have not tried CrossOver Office but I know it runs supported
> > applications (like MS Office or IE) better than Wine, but I've always
> > found Wine to be a bit lacking if your really need a certain app to
> > work. My specific 'benchmark' here is Corel Photo-Paint since that's
> > an application actually needed
>
> Needed by you, it seems. Other people seem to be fine with GIMP...
I have a lot respect for The GIMP and what it achived. Personally I don't like
it's interface, that's correct, but I don't use it for much more than image
resizing and the like - I don't use PhotoPaint or the likes either, so I just
don't need it.
But for those who have been used to a specific app for years it's not just
like "hey let's switch to Linux completely and be a bit unproductive for some
month until I figure out how GIMP really works"
> ..., and I
> don't see why this should be part of *Debian*-desktop, it could be part
> of a another, "Support non-free software to better run Windows apps"
> sub-project.
>
DDD already seems a bit like this kind of 'unorthodox' sub-project to me...
From the website:
"Additionally, we understand ourselves as outriders: With the technology we
created we want to provide space for new ideas. We make our work available
for other projects which want to build their work up on ours. "
> > > I don't see how executing Windows applications will further the goal
> > > of Linux on the Desktop. Others might have a different opinion.
> >
> > Yes, that's a whole topic of it's own I think. Using and maintaining
> > several windows systems myself I disagree. It's simply not possible
> > for many users to leave all their long used windows applications
> > behind and start from scratch with Linux - even though they might want
> > to leave Windows behind, they can't just leave the applications.
>
> I agree that this might be a problem, but I fail to see why this is
> relevant for Debian. We didn't do anything special to support dosemu
> back in the days, we didn't use fvwm95 as default WM back in the days,
> and I wonder why we should support Windows nowadays - even more so as
> finally most common applications seem to have better free counterparts.
>
For non-tech users it's not always a question of whats better - it's a
question of what you can do easily and what you need to learn (again) first.
Just like with the GIMP / Photopaint above - user's don't easily switch
applications with which they have 4+ years of work done - this takes time,
and if there is no easy route for them into the Linux Desktop it will just
never happen.
Hmm, this went quite a bit of topic now. I'd really like to hear what the
developers of DDD are planning to do or think about implementing such
'convenience patches'.
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