[scribus] Linux vs Windows for Scribus ?

[Sveinn í Felli]

jwminer at accessvt.com wrote:
> John C. wrote:
>> All these levels of software tend to grow but not necessarily get
>> better. After many years with Slackware and KDE I have given up
>> on KDE4. To put it another way I find that Xfce gives me more of
>> the features and the look and feel I am used to with KDE than the
>> latest KDE does. So I have switched from KDE to Xfce on my
>> primary Slackware partition but also on my Debian-like partition.

> 
> Why did you go to Xubuntu rather than stick with a Slackware base
> and try VectorLinux 6 Standard? XFce is the default GUI for VL
> Standard. Judging by comments on our VectorLinux user support board
> from former users of Xubuntu,

> VectorLinux could be considered a friendlier, more desktop-oriented
> Slackware. 

> One thing I suggest to people who are looking to try Scribus on
> Linux: don't take people's suggestions as gospel. Every Linux distro
> has its fans and fanboys as well as people who hate it. Few people
> making recommendations have tried every distro--and making comments
> based on something you last tried in 2004 is ridiculous. Desktop
> Linux has come a LOOOONG way since then. It's true that some distros
> are newbie-friendlier than others, but unless you're starting out
> with Linux From Scratch or Gentoo or maybe genuine Slackware, you'll
> find easy-to-use features in all of them. I think a friendly and
> knowledgeable user support board is very important because if you're
> new (and even if you're experienced), you'll have questions and need
> them answered understandably without being made to feel stupid. This
> is one area where VectorLinux excels, but I'm sure many other
> distros have newbie-friendly support.
> 
> The important thing is to start out with *something*. it's not a
> decision for eternity. You can always switch to something else if
> you're not satisfied with the distro you started out with. Also,
> don't flit around from distro to distro too much. Stick with one
> long enough to get familiar with it. You can't form an opinion on
> the basis of half a day's trial.
> --Judy M.
>   USA

Good points Judy.

But for a new (potential) linux user there are other issues
which may be critical, I'm gonna raise a couple here:

#1 Number of users -->Access to help/tips/information.
Some distros are so marginal that info on "normal" usage of
the distro may be scarse. Some distros are even so marginal
that a newbie gets really a personal guidance from qualified
enthusiasts. Quality (of information) is not equal to
quantity, bigger userbase tends to have more solutions
available to problems. VL does not seem to have easily
obtainable info on many issues, unless you ask the right
questions in the forums (my personal impression).

#2 Localization -->Language support.
Some distros are better than others in supporting "foreign"
languages, not only how well their package customizations
are translated, but also how UTF-8 and RTL support are
implemented. I've had to dump several distos (e.g.
PCLinuxOS) due to such issues (garbled characters in samba
etc.). This of course matters to users "from the rest of the
world" - curiously the distros not paying much attention to
l10n are american-based (PCLinuxOS seems to be Texan, VL is
theoretically Canadian).

By this I'm not criticizing VL or PCLOS, just underlining
that there can be other criteria for choosing a Linux
distribution. Just thoughts, since I've lately been helping
a bunch of newbies discovering/converting to linux and other
FOSS software.

Anyway, the best support for Scribus is of course on this
list - I dont mind if the threads occationally drift off
course from time to time... :-)

Best regards,

Sveinn í Felli
Editor of www.openoffice.is
Translations KDE, GNOME, *buntu, Stellarium