"The Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"

Accupuncturist Filmaker Hates Fascist MS Products

From Zombewolf on Mon, 31 Jan 2000

dear answer guy

I'm a keep it simple, I dont like to waste time on computers kind of guy. I do very little with a computer because the learning curve is too high and software changes version far too frequently to allow me to use what I just learned.

In 1993 I edited many films, commercials, infomertials on AVID proprietary mac based machines. Now I'm an accupuncturist with minimal computer usage. I draft bills and do some research. Some day, when I get rich, I'll make films again ( maybe in 5 or 10 years).

That's an interesting background.

I HATE MICROSOFT AND IT'S FASCIST WINDOWS PRODUCTS.

This sentiment seems a mite strong for a casual computer user. Usually it's the professionals who spend 80 hours a week working on this stuff that have such seething vehemence.

I'll buy a computer in March - can I do well with linux or am I the wrong profile?

I hate to see some one driven so much by hatred. (O.K. I know that sounded funny, but I mean it).

I'd rather you use Linux because it offered you what you wanted, rather than out of unadulterated revulsion.

How to you feel about MacOS?

It sounds like Linux or MacOS might fill the bill for you. However, you might have a bit of a trick to find Linux applications that meet your needs and user interface preferences.

The GNOME project is working on GNOfin and GNUcash for personal accounting. However I doubt those are ready for use as general purpose accounting and billing applications. There is the AppGen commercial accounting package for Linux (*) which might be overkill for your needs.

• (http://www.appgen.com/linux.html)

Unfortunately there isn't a "Quickbooks" for Linux, yet. Here's one place to look for some of the financial applications that exist for Linux:

LinuxStart

http://www.linuxstart.com/applications/finance.html

... and a couple of my favorites:

Christopher B. Browne's

http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/finances.html

... and

Linas Vepstas

http://linas.org/linux

I dont know anyone who uses the os and want to know how to make an informed decision.

Thank You William Daniels

I see by your phone number that you're in the 415 area code. (As always I've removed all addressing and personal information beyond your name from the quoted portions of your e-mail; I don't let those get published in my column).

You're in the perfect location to visit Linux user's groups to meet lots of people who use Linux. You can visit SVLUG (http://www.svlug.org) and BALUG (http://www.balug.org) to find out the details about when and where the have their meetings.

SVLUG meets next Wednesday (first Wednesday of every month). The February meeting will probably be a bit less well attended than usual --- many bay area Linux users will be in New York at the LinuxWorld Expo. However, there will probably still be over 100 people there. (Their meetings are usually twice that).

BALUG is held on the third Thursday of the month at the Four Seas restaurant in San Francisco's chinatown.

You can find out more than you'd ever want to know about Bay Area (and Silicon Valley) Linux events at http://www.linuxmafia.com/bale

(Note: Installfests are events where Linux geeks like me get together and help new users install Linux unto their systems and configure them for your use. That's one of the nice benefits of using a free operating system --- we can help one another without concerns about software piracy interfering with our fun).

Tuesday, Thursday...

From Tim Moss on Sun, 20 Feb 2000

Jim Dennis wrote:

BALUG is held on the third Thursday of the month at the Four Seas restaurant in San Francisco's chinatown.

Tim Moss says:
Shouldn't that be 3rd Tuesday?

Yep! 3rd Thursday is BayLISA (Bay Area Large Installation Systems Administration: a predecessor to SAGE, the SysAdmin's Guild).

I sometimes get them confused, though my PalmPilot reminds me of the right meeting dates. I have a pair of periodic reminder for each (previous and same day for each).

That's two you've caught me on this month. Want a job as "assistant editor"?

(The pay is non-existent, but we have the benefits to match!)

Copyright © 2000, James T. Dennis
Published in The Linux Gazette Issue 51 March 2000

HTML transformation by Heather Stern of Tuxtops, Inc., http://www.tuxtops.com/

					1	2	3	5
				5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22