2020: Will BSD and Linux be relevant anymore?

[Polytropon]

On Fri, 22 Jul 2011 07:05:59 -0600, Chad Perrin wrote:
> re: TeX and MS Word or OO.o Write
> 
> TeX is a print formatting system.  MS Word and OO.o Write are very poor
> text editors with some very poor facsimiles of print formatting systems
> built into them. 

(La)TeX is a professional typesetting system with
excellent typographical features. The other ones
are text processors (often also called word processors).
Those are BELOW a typesetting system on the
evolutionary ladder. (Good text editors are
typically on the same level as the typesetting
system they feed.)

Some aspects:

http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/~cottrell/wp.html
(my favourite one!)

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/latex.html

http://en.nothingisreal.com/wiki/Please_don't_send_me_Microsoft_Word_documents

http://www.longleaf.net/ggrow/computerbad.html

Sadly, most users don't even use those "low habits"
program the wrong way... Microformatting, no
difference between text functionality and layout
(what it IS vs. what it LOOKS LIKE) and so on
are just a few examples. Marco-bomb loaded files,
binary blobs and outdated (and therefore
incompatible) proprietary versions, as well as
problems with interoperability are others. Welcome
to digital medieval times.

People now crying that LaTeX isn't a WYSIWYG:
There's LyX for that. :-)

Of course I don't want to enter a discussion of
which tool is "the best", as this is nonsense.
But it's worth mentioning that traditional word
processors are often the _worst_ tool for what
people use them in reality. Those people _require_
software that allows them to do even the stupidest,
most inefficient and exaggerated idiotic things,
and finally that's _also_ an aspect of freedom.



> At this point, I think the market for such applications is essentially a
> mass case of Stockholm Syndrome. 

The "market", often consisting of pirated copies,
originates from the fact that users want "the same
pictures" at home as they know them from work -
and vice versa.



> When someone fires up MS Office or OpenOffice.org just to write the
> equivalent of a post-it note, there is something horribly, desperately
> wrong with the way people use software.

Of course. For creating post-it notes, you have to
use "Powerpoint", and if it should have columns or
boxes, use "Excel", moron! :-)



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...