| Desktop Options |
by Michael C. Barnes
Michael C. Barnes takes an in-depth look at desktop operating system options available on the market today in this exclusive article at DesktopLinux.com. Evaluating over 30 desktop options for this article, Barnes dissects Microsoft Windows XP, offers a perspective on the evolution of the desktop, and reviews popular Desktop Linux options including Red Hat, ELX, Debian, Slackware, Lycoris and more . . .
Desktop Options
by Michael C. Barnes
I have recently completed an evaluation of over thirty different desktops. It was a unique opportunity and one I must admit was quite fun. The purpose for this evaluation was that I wanted to select the right operating system environment for a commercial computer product. I believe that my findings might be useful to others looking at their options.
The purpose of my search was to identify the best desktop to support a variety of functions--personal, professional, and entertainment. I tried to approach this project with an open mind.
The first Desktop I evaluated for this project was Microsoft Windows XP (we will refer to it as XP from here on out). Prior to using XP, I had migrated to Windows 2000. Windows 2000 proved to be a very stable workhorse. I had upgraded from Windows 98 Second Edition (from here on out, I will simply refer to this version as Windows 98) and the improvement in stability and performance was substantial.
The problem that I had with Windows 2000 was locating drivers. When I migrated to Windows 2000, I found I had to replace some of my peripherals as they were not supported by Windows 2000. There were many devices that simply were not supported by Windows 2000. I tried to upgrade from Windows 2000 to Windows XP. This approach was not totally satisfactory. I found that in the end, I was better off getting rid of my existing Windows installation by blowing away the Windows directory and reinstalling Windows XP from scratch. I then reinstalled all my software. This left all my data intact.
When you install XP or Windows 2000, you have a decision to make. The decision is whether to convert your drive to NTFS or not. I have done both. I believe that for most users, leaving file system FAT32 is best. NTFS is suppose to be more stable and faster, but it is also very difficult to convert back to FAT32 in case you change your mind.
XP was the easiest install of any Windows I have ever tried. On a new system, it is likely that XP will install all the required drivers automatically. While Windows 2000's plug and play support was marginal, XP is exceptional.
XP is also a very attractive desktop. Colors are very pleasing. ICONs are very functional. Menus are easy to find and easy to use. Initially, I was a bit shocked at how sparse the XP install looked. Going through the menus, I found out that I could quickly recreate my preferred cluttered look with ICONs for everything displayed on the desktop.
XP is a very functional and attractive desktop environment
Windows XP is also quite functional right out of the box. The world's most popular browser, Internet Explorer is included. File management, editors, simple word processing (Wordpad), graphics programs and games are all preinstalled.
Windows XP provides native support for CD burning and has excellent facilities for displaying graphics and printing. Windows XP provides facilities for remotely accessing your desktop and a variety of administration tools. E-mail is also integrated as part of the product offering.
Windows XP also scores very high in terms of compatibility with other operating systems. You can easily connect a Windows XP based system up to a Unix or GNU/Linux based system.
The area where Microsoft Windows has been criticized the most is for security. One of the unfortunate facts of life is that one of the biggest challenges anyone using Microsoft Windows will face is viruses. Viruses are not something we can blame Microsoft for directly. If GNU/Linux were more popular than Microsoft, then GNU/Linux's would be the victim of more viruses. Viruses attack Microsoft products because they are the most popular and any weaknesses are well documented. Anyone using Microsoft Windows is well advised to use and update virus protection software. Some motherboards and peripherals come with free versions of popular virus software. One company, Grisoft, offers a free antivirus software package. I actually prefer their free package to any antivirus software I have used in the past. While they provide free single computer solutions, Grisoft makes their income by selling corporate solutions.
Microsoft Windows is often attacked because of the amount of resources required. I tested over thirty desktops and I believe that this is an unfair criticism. XP requires 128 MB. 256 is better. While some Linux distributions will claim they can run KDE or Gnome in 64 MB, 128 is far more practical. Given the low cost of RAM, anyone buying a new computer should go with 256 MB or more. I have found that at 256 MB, I never encounter any problems.
Processor speed is less an issue. I have tested XP on a 300 Mhz Pentium II. With 192 MB RAM, performance is very good. Therefore, anyone considering upgrading to XP on older computers should look at how much memory they have and how easy it is to upgrade.
During our tests, we tried to to find out what operating systems worked best in older computers with little memory. Our results surprised us. We believe that for computers with less than 64 MB RAM, Windows 98SE is probably the best install. Windows ME will not install on processors that are less than 150 Mhz.
We successfully installed and used Windows 98 on computers with as little as 16 MB RAM and using processors as weak as 100 Mhz 486's. We were surprised to see that these computers were actually functional. Even using Windows 98, these older computers were not up to the task of supporting new office suites. We tested a 32 MB laptop with 133 Mhz processor. It worked very well for web browsing and e-mail but when we tried to load OpenOffice, the system loaded slowly but once the software loaded, it was functional. The laptop was adequate to run Office 97. We did not test Office 2000.
Our advice is that if you have older machines with licensed copies of Microsoft and they are working, leave them alone. You should check Microsoft's website to see if updates are available for your particular OS. You might enhance your desktop downloading free and open source software.
We downloaded Netscape and Mozilla on these older machines and everything still worked fine.
Cost of application software has also been a criticism for Microsoft Windows products. Having been in the computer industry for 20 years, I do not think that the criticism is historically fair. Many of the tasks we now accomplish on a PC were impossible on the largest of mainframes a few years ago. The databases that are now included in Office Suites are more powerful than the databases corporations were paying tens of thousands of dollars for years ago. We are getting more functionality for less money with today's software than we ever have in the past.
While it is one thing for an office to pay $450 per user for an office suite, it is quite another to think we need to purchase such a powerful package for our child to do homework, or even to use at home. Much of the world is not affluent enough to afford the prices of office suites.
Companies that develop intellectual property have a right to collect money on their work. They have rights to enforce those intellectual property rights legally. Individuals and organizations do not have a right to use copyrighted material without compensating the intellectual rights owners.
Because of this, I strongly encourage people who don't need or can't afford the power of the most popular office suites to look for alternatives.
There are many options. For many people, the only package they need is word processing. For older computers, or for people with light word processing requirements, I strongly suggest Jarte. Jarte is a replacement for Microsoft Wordpad. The basic version is free. A plus version is only $15.00. I believe that Jarte and Jarte Plus are astonishingly good programs. There is a very good chance that Jarte or Jarte Plus is more than enough word processing capability for many users. I cannot imagine a child requiring anything more powerful. Jarte is one of the most ideal programs to breathe life in even the oldest computers. We tested Jarte with Windows 98 on a 100 Mhz 486 with 16 MB of RAM and found it to be quite useful.
Jarte Word Processor
The next step up for Jarte is AbiWord. AbiWord is a free download. AbiWord is a full-featured Microsoft Word equivalent. I would not suggest running AbiWord on anything less than 32 MB. AbiWord can read most Microsoft Word documents without a problem and can create Microsoft Word compatible documents.
AbiWord is an exceptional word processor. I remember when I purchased my first copy of Microsoft Word. I was upgrading from Wordstar for DOS. It was very hard for me to give up my favorite word processor but Wordstar had not made a very good transition to Windows so I had to pick a new word processor. I was able to get an upgrade price by bringing in my Wordstar manual. It cost me $79.95 to upgrade to Microsoft Word 2.2. I once again upgraded to Word 6.0. The Word that I see included in the Office Suites is probably far more functional but I am still using the functionality I learned on my original Word 2.2.
Screenshot of AbiWord
AbiWord looks and feels a lot like Microsoft Word.
I went through my collection of documents that I have created with Microsoft Word over the past ten years. I found that most of them loaded with satisfactory results. Some of the documents required a little editing, but none of the documents failed to load.
I cannot see how even a word processing power user will need more word processing power than what AbiWord provides. AbiWord is ideal for those people who do a lot of writing but rarely touch a spreadsheet. It is also a very good upgrade for anyone who has an older version of Microsoft Word.
I worked for Sun Microsystems for 13 years. When I first started with Sun, we were provided with dumb terminals on our desks. I had just left a company that gave us PCs to use. I had a laser printer at my desk and the latest version of Word Perfect. When I arrived at Sun, I was astonished to see that my word processor was an editor, vi. In order to create headings and special features, I had to use embedded codes and then print the document out using a command enscript.
For my first three years, I worked this way. I had to learn how to create tables and change fonts understanding what our Postscript printer would do with these commands. While the rest of the world was using Windows, I was using a dumb terminal and Unix.
After three years, I got a workstation. I named the workstation "Finally" as this is how I felt about waiting three years simply to be able to see bold printed as bold. Unfortunately, once I got my workstation, the only thing I could do was open an Xterminal and type using vi and enscript.
In those days, Unix had not quite caught up to MS DOS when it came to personal productivity. I would have paid big money just to have Wordstar again. In fact, I craved the word processing cartridge that I used to plug into my Atari 800 computer.
Eventually, Sun introduced some personal productivity tools. Sun OEM'd a series of personal productivity tools from a company called Island. Sun christened these as Sun Write, Sun Draw and Sun Paint. I believe that each of these packages cost about $600 each. They were the functional equivalent to Wordpad, Paint, and Draw.
Over the years, we were given new tools to work with. We had Interleaf (that was often called Intergrief). We had Framemaker and Applix. Finally, Sun purchased a little known company in Germany to acquire their office suite, StarOffice. The first version of StarOffice that Sun released was version 5.1. Version 5.1 had problems with its filters. This and other problems were fixed in version 5.2. StarOffice 5.2 is functionally equal to Microsoft Office 2000. I have used StarOffice 5.2 to create hundreds of documents and hundreds of presentations. I have no problem exchanging files with people who use Microsoft products. There might be some compatibility issues for scripts, but this has never proved to be a problem for me.
After releasing StarOffice 5.2, Sun Microsystems released the source code as Open Source code. The control of this code came under the OpenOffice Organization.
Some people did not like the fact that StarOffice had its own desktop. I personally saw that this could have been an ideal solution for dedicated computing devices. I could imagine a version of StarOffice running with a Vesa driver and not requiring X Windows. All of the functions required would be built directly into StarOffice. This was not to be.
StarOffice 6.0 and OpenOffice 1.0 separated the applications in the way they are separated in Microsoft Office. I have, for the most part, continued to use StarOffice 5.2. I have upgraded to StarOffice 6.0 and I also use OpenOffice 1.0.
StarOffice 6.0 and OpenOffice 1.0 are nearly the same. I happen to be a very bad speller. OpenOffice and StarOffice 6.0 have different spelling engines. Both programs are equally adept at catching errors. StarOffice 6.0 is much better at suggesting the correct spelling.
Sun Microsystems claims that they have better filters built into StarOffice 6.0. I do not know that this is the case, as I have never encountered a problem with OpenOffice regarding filters.
 Screenshot of OpenOffice's Impress Presentation Program
My advice would be for those people who do a lot of writing and need the assistance of a spellchecker to either stick with StarOffice 5.2 or move up to StarOffice 6.0. StarOffice 5.2 is available for free, while Sun Microsystems charges $79.95 for StarOffice 6.0. OpenOffice is available as a free download.
All three of these office suites are excellent. I have used them all to do real work. I have given presentations and written proposals for years. Many of my documents contain graphics and tables, and many of them are hundreds of pages long.
I have created many web pages using StarOffice and OpenOffice. The HTML that these programs generate are more accurate than the HTML that Microsoft Word generates.
Some organizations can justify giving their heavy duty users expensive office suites. I doubt that many can justify why everyone in an organization needs to have them. While schools and other organizations can get very deep discounts on software, I see little reason for them to spend money on such products when there are so many low cost alternatives.
I encourage everyone to download Jarte and try it out. Leave it on your computer as it is a better Wordpad. Feel free to put it on all your computers. If you find that it is enough to do your level of word processing, then consider upgrading to Jarte Plus.
If Jarte Plus isn't sufficient, then download AbiWord. AbiWord is equal in power to Microsoft Word and it is free.
If you require spreadsheet and presentation tools, you can try StarOffice 5.2 or OpenOffice 1.0 for free. If your organization prefers to have the benefits of a commercially supported product with a commercial grade spellchecker and commercial grade filters, StarOffice will be well worth the $79.95 price.
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 About the author: Michael C. Barnes is currently president of NorhTec. Mr. Barnes has over 20 years experience with computers and another 10 years experience with more primitive networks, to include paper tape and morse code. Mr. Barnes has 18 years of experience with various Unix systems and spent 13 years with Sun Microsystems.
Mr. Barnes became fascinated with GNU/Linux turned the common PC into a Unix like workstation. By 1998, GNU/Linux surpassed the desktop environments offered on traditional Unix workstations.
When GNU/Linux is combined with low-cost x86 platforms, organizations now have the power to create enterprise computing for the small organization.
Mr. Barnes, born in Kentucky, now lives in Bangkok, Thailand with his wife, Linda Kubota-Barnes and his daughter Karen Barnes.
Copyright © 2002 by Michael C. Barnes. Reproduced by DesktopLinux.com with permission.
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