From owner-freebsd-chat Fri Jan 29 08:48:47 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id IAA07490 for freebsd-chat-outgoing; Fri, 29 Jan 1999 08:48:47 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from post.mail.demon.net (finch-post-10.mail.demon.net [194.217.242.38]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id IAA07478 for ; Fri, 29 Jan 1999 08:48:45 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from marko@uk.radan.com) Received: from [158.152.75.22] (helo=uk.radan.com) by post.mail.demon.net with smtp (Exim 2.11 #1) id 106H61-0005cd-00; Fri, 29 Jan 1999 16:48:41 +0000 Organisation: Radan Computational Ltd., Bath, UK. Phone: +44-1225-320320 Fax: +44-1225-320311 Received: from beavis.uk.radan.com (beavis [193.114.228.122]) by uk.radan.com (8.6.10/8.6.10) with SMTP id QAA03847; Fri, 29 Jan 1999 16:48:13 GMT Received: from uk.radan.com (gppsun4) by beavis.uk.radan.com (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA11671; Fri, 29 Jan 99 16:48:12 GMT Message-Id: <36B1E630.D0A44B2@uk.radan.com> Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 16:47:44 +0000 From: Mark Ovens Organization: Radan Computational Ltd X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (X11; I; SunOS 4.1.3_U1 sun4m) X-Accept-Language: en-GB Mime-Version: 1.0 To: Greg Lehey Cc: FreeBSD Chat , Yana Lehey , Mark C Ovens Subject: Re: Computers for kids (was: Back to school) References: <19990128162246.A4819@freebie.lemis.com> <36B03AC0.97BC1551@uk.radan.com> <19990129091524.K8473@freebie.lemis.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Greg Lehey wrote: > > > OK, such research could be done on the Internet, but telephone charges > > could make this prohibitive, especially for schools. I rather hope > > that with the increased acceptance of Linux in the mainstream we may > > see Linux versions of such software available in the not too distant > > future. Then I can get rid of 95. > > I suppose it depends on what you mean by ``not too distant''. I don't > see any evidence of people doing any extra work here, and that's what > it would boil down to. > I get the feeling that the porting of (commercial) apps to Linux (let's face it, that's where they'll get ported first) should start to accelerate now that Corel have produced WP8, and plan to port the whole WP Suite, because there is now a big name mainstream (i.e. end-user or desktop) app available. This should make Linux a viable alternative to Windows in the commercial environment. The reason/excuse; "...but we can't run M$ Office on it" is now invalid. Once a couple more big names "jump on the bandwagon" things should start to snowball I would expect as Linux would be a more realistic option to Windows and it's increased user base would make it an attractive oppotunity for the commercial software companies. As Jason Wells pointed out, Multimedia Encyclopaedias are just a large volume of data in various standard formats, JPEG, MPEG, HTML, etc. and the binaries needed to produce the user interface are a very small part of the product compared to an Office suite. For this reason porting these things to another OS should be a relatively simple (cheap) exercise as viewers for all these formats are readily available so they would be an attractive product for companies to use for getting a share of the new market. In fact the only thing stopping Open source programs being produced to use, say, IBM's World Book is that all these standard format files are stored in proprietry compressed archives with proprietry index files. BTW, on your homepage, how about adding a description of the hardware you are sat in front of in the photo? > Greg > -- > See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers > finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message -- FreeBSD - The Power To Serve http://www.freebsd.org My Webpage http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~markov _______________________________________________________________ Mark Ovens, CNC Apps Engineer, Radan Computational Ltd. Bath UK CAD/CAM solutions for Sheetmetal Working Industry mailto:marko@uk.radan.com http://www.radan.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message