Wow, it's been awhile since my last post. November is project month at university, and since I'm taking business and that means almost every class has a group project. Most of them, naturally enough, are due sometime in November. However, the biggest of them, my Marketing project, has been mostly retired and this has given me something akin to breathing room.
Which is why I'm going to take the opportunity to blog about technology.
Has anyone here seen IBM's Lotus Symphony? My opinion is best summed up by: high hopes. Based on Open Office, the premier office suite available for the Linux desktop, Symphony gives the office suite on Linux more developers, and God willing, a better interface and functionality.
Open Office is a fine product, especially given it's price. But it's not nearly as good as MS Office, especially the 2007 version. This is more of a problem than with other apps, since the fact is people were not typing out documents on Wordpad before switching to Linux. For example, most people have not bought Adobe Illustrator, and therefore an equivalent if less feature-full program being available for free on Linux (Inkscape) is a selling point. But most people have been using some version of MS Office before switching, and therefore the higher cost of that program is considered sunk. So having a less feature-full program available for free becomes a liability, not an asset.
Just looking at the screenshots for Symphony though, it's looking like the interface is improving, and more importantly, moving away from being a simple MS Office clone. Spreadsheets needs some attention: optimization, anyone? Or how's about reminding me about formula syntax as I write them? Also, presentations needs some serious love. The key here it a) make more templates and b) hire decent graphics designers so they're slick. Oh, and would it kill anyone to make a "handouts" layout that includes lines for notes?
More than Symphony, though, I'm looking forward to KDE 4 making an appearance on the Linux desktop. Eventually.
I tried out what they're calling "Release Candidate 1", though the system is clearly not ready for production use. Having said that, I see enormous potential for KDE 4. The widgets, the smooth animations that are scattered throughout the system, the icon theme -- all look very slick and very professional. Assuming some non-KDE technologies can be easily integrated into the system, or ported over for KDE equivalents, I think that the Linux desktop will begin to match or surpass the offerings from private companies, though we'll still lack in 3rd party apps.
The non-KDE technologies I'm thinking of here are PulseAudio, Avant Window Navigator and Compiz Fusion: the most exciting Gnome-based technologies out there. I know Kwin now does compositing, but I'd like the zoom, desktop cube and tab windows features from Compiz (some of the visual flash would be nice too, but not necessary) as I find those rather handy for windows management. As far as AWN goes, it's the best damn dock going. Period. With some KDE-specific plugins, I think it could feel right at home. Finally, I don't know much about PulseAudio, but being able to control sound on an app-by-app basis sounds very, very cool.
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