Re: Carving out a niche (Re: Redhat 6.1)

[Charles E Taylor IV <charlet hubcap clemson edu>]

On 05-Oct-99 Greg Lindahl wrote:

> Given that talk is cheap, I'd expect just about anyone to do the
> second, except I'd phrase it more like "AlphaLinux machines can be
> used as desktops, but they're really good today for big number
> crunching, like weather forcasting supercomputers." (I'm so subtle,
> aren't I?) Attacking the desktop and small server market depends on
> low price machines, and that's out of our hands. Only API and Compaq
> can make those happen. The software is already mostly ready.

I'd agtee with this.  If you say Linux of any flavor is "ready" for the
desktop, you'd pretty much have to put the status of the Alpha port on 
the same field.  The only thing I'd consider REALLY lacking is games, which
isn't really a big factor for me as I do most of my game playing on inexpensive
consoles.  Office stuff?  No Star Office on Alpha (yet), but we have Applix, in
addition to whatever progress has been made on the free applications.
The browser problem is somewhat of an issue, as you can't run Netscape on Alpha
Linux without ex$pensive Tru64 libraries.  This is also out of our hands and up
to Compaq and Netscape, at least until Mozilla develops to a point where it
*can* replace Netscape for all uses, and not just casual browsing.  ICQ clients
are also a weak area of the Alpha, as pretty much the best Linux ICQ client
(licq) simply doesn't run on the Alpha.  Any recommendations here for a
GUI-based client that's relatively stable on Alphas?  I'm using nicq as a
graphical client at the moment.  Not a pinnacle of stability, but at least it
can talk to the network.

Heck, my Alpha systems *are* used as desktop systems (one doubles as a
low-volume web/ftp server).  If Compaq got the price down to reasonable levels
for home users, I might buy more. :)

---
Charles E. "Rick" Taylor, IV <charlet@clemson.edu>
http://orangesherbert.ces.clemson.edu
"We got the MRxL, and you got none!"