> Hi > > I'm wondering what everyone's motivation is for using Linux on a laptop > instead of Cygwin + Windows.
Cygwin was always too bulky; when I used MSwin, I use JP Software's 4dos or Take Command. BTW there is a project called "Litestep" which replaces MSwin's Explorer with an Afterstep like system environment - claimed to crash less, and GPL'd. There are also Plus Pack themes to make a system look like Gnome Desktop or a few enlightenment setups. But that's not Debian. > The way I see it, a laptop is basically a giant PDA. I find most PDAs small enough to easily lose, hard to read, hard to write in. They sometimes have better battery behavior. I have a fairly small model laptop; it fits in my purse; I do keep on it, many things which people would normally keep in their PDAs. Reading material and solitaire, for example. It isn't as easy to goof off during a meeting such that everyone will think you're just taking notes, but I consider that feature a Good Thing. > People usually use them for typing down stuff during classes, seminars, > conferences, Yes, but also so that my notes can be directly incorporated in the report, documentation for the client, tickle me to email the right folks afterwards. > in the library, It *is* my library - one stop at a net connection, first. The same can be true for your PDA. Ob Debian: sitescooper is a debian package. Highly recommended. My hubby uses it for his Palm. you forgot "on the airplane" > for presenting (powerpoint) material, I used Magicpoint, available as a debian package, at Comdex. Other presentation packages exist but I enjoy that mgp uses plaintext files and loose jpg's so I can control my presentations. I hear that VFBpoint has more wipes and fades, and uses a text based format, but haven't tried it yet. As for "MS compatibility" go bug one of the commercial office product vendors - Sun's StarOffice (tho if that works OpenOffice probably will), HancomOffice, Applix... uh whoever bought them, I think that was Anyware. Probably others. And deeply consider whether you really need them to view your presentation without you attached to it. If they do, HTML or PDFs are probably a much better medium. > or for > keeping all their mail and personal archives in one place, etc. *all* that stuff lives on my desktop; some people do live their entire life on the laptop, though, that's true. In which case it gets used for everything they'd do at a desk. plus often as a "giant PDA" as well. At the rate I get mail, I really ought to take it on planes with me, tho I often don't; it certainly wouldn't fit on a PDA. What I do keep on my laptop are dev environments for client projects, e.g. websites, chroot areas. And fun things I work on, e.g. gtk themes, chroot areas. c.f http://www.LNX-BBC.org/ Much easier to cross compile for a PDA from a laptop than the other way around. > Laptops don't > get used much as servers They do have the best UPSs but most people don't seem aware of this. I know of at least one laptop in production use as a server. > or development workstations, are they? Mine certainly does. I don't see anything debian specific here. If you are asking our advice about a laptop to buy, but are not sure that you might not stick with a desktop... we can help much better if you tell us what YOU want to do with it, not about how you expect that to work under the hood, or about other people's usual reasons for doing the same thing. Yes, you can have all the glitzy trimmings on your laptop, take your desk with you everywhere, and for the price of actually having to make some choices (a price many won't or find they can't pay) ... you get a lot more choice and control, and to a certain degree more efficient use of the same hardware resources. The thing that first brought me to Linux to stay was the idea that when one piece fails everything else keeps ticking along, and bonking a broken task on the head rarely if ever leads to general meltdown. So ... if you think you might want to head our way ... toward laptops and potentially toward Debian... what are your required features, desired features, and constraints (things you need to not see/use/encounter)? If not, well, have fun, but have it elsewhere. I am available for consulting in requirements analsyis regarding free software if you wish to contact me privately. * Heather Stern * star@ many places... [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
