[scribus] New Linux User -- Scribus in place of PageMaker 6?

[Frank Swygert]

Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 01:33:52 +0100
From: John Beardmore <John at T4sLtd.co.uk>

John:
I can see the writing on the wall for PM6.

Even under win2k it seemed to have the habit of turning into a zombie 
process on termination, not freeing system resources, and locking access 
to the printer. And it was none too stable when printing, had problems 
making high resolution PDFs, issues with the reusability of material, 
and no spelling checker. OK, it works under XP, but vista and
beyond ?

Frank:
I've never had a problem with PM6 at all on XP or 98SE, had heard that W2K (and wasn't there another version between 98SE and XP?) could have problems and really wasn't that much better than 98SE, and saw no reason to upgrade until XP. The only thing I don't like in XP/PM6 is that the wheel on the mouse doesn't do anything. But I don't know how PM6 would run under Vista. That's why I'm exploring Linux now -- if I upgrade from XP anytime soon it will be to Linux. If necessary I can always dual boot or run another computer with XP, but don't really want to do that. 

>(I bought and sent 
> back PM7, and looked at a demo of InDesign -- obviously PM7 was a 
> gateway between the two, trying to "push" PM users in that direction).

John:
I'm not sure about that. InDesign came out long before PM7 as I recall. 
The way Adobe did that in itself irritated me immensely.

The best gateway would have been for Adobe to make InDesign import P65 
files properly. Not a happy experience !

Frank: 
What I meant was I believe PM7 was made to look and work more like InDesign than previous PM versions to push PM users toward InDesign. The only thing that worked better on PM7 was the importation of older versions. I think the differing file formats of PM vs ID made importing difficult. 


I didn't present my point about stores selling software well did I? The main reason is in the average consumer's mind (at least in the US... the UK is a bit more pregressive I think, but really can't say!) something hasn't reached legitimacy until they see it on store shelves. Linux is something techies play with and not many people know about. LinSpire (commercial version of FreeSpire) is the only easy to install/use Linux I've seen on store shelves, other than on book/magazine CDs (which doesn't seem to be a bad starting point). They bombed with a fee software repository though. All who were familiar with Linux would more than likely recommend people stay away from something that charged for what they could get for free with other distros. LinSpire DID attempt to make it easy to upgrade/download, so it's not like the fee was for nothing, but even I saw it as more of a way to make more money than to provide funding for the service, which really didn't cost the company much. 

I may be off the point in many ways, but I'm talking to mostly technical oriented people who understand and are comfortable with searching the net, downloading large files, burning CDs, etc. Joe average's kids might, but many rural areas still don't have high speed internet. I barely do, and only because a local cable company has a radio based high speed service (about the same as standard cable, maybe a little faster) and dad has an 80' antenna tower (formerly for CB radio) right next door. My house is only 150' from his, so I buried CAT6 cable between the two. Without the receiver 70' up that tower (the reach of the bucket truck!) we'd be SOL or have to look into a more expensive satellite setup. 

There's more non-tech people out there than tech, though that will change over the next 20 years. The fact is that until a lot of average consumers start seeing Linux in stores it will be considered a techie plaything to them, not something you can just go out and get like Windows. A lot of people still think the Mac is just a high end "designer" computer for geeks and "upscale" folks, not "just another computer" like the ubiquitous Windows box. 

A Linux store with banks of computers/burn CDs on demnad probably isn't a good idea, I was just throwing out a possible scenario. A simple kiosk with commercial looking boxed software would probably be the way to go, with a couple computers running demos. Heck, the boxes could just be for show, burn CDs from a master computer as needed or have them in envelopes ready to go, like some stores do for DVDs and music CDs. Burning a few at a time and having the capability to produce on demand would keep inventory down though. 




-- 
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
(free download available!)