Fedora desktop experience: Great, but not quite all I need

[Benjamin J. Weiss]

Just wanted to share a quick review on my attempt to replace Windows on my 
desktop at home.

Below are the things I do with the computer and how well they translated 
to Fedora:

1) Email.  I had some problems getting Evolution 1.4 to talk nicely with 
my RH 9 email server via imaps and smtp-auth over tls.  I'm still working 
through that, but I got email working by allowing relay from the desktop 
box.  My wife is getting used to the interface, but it's no big deal for 
her, so that's a plus.

2) Digital Camera.  My wife has two digital cameras:
 - Kodak DX 3500.  gtkam worked just fine, saw the camera and I could see 
all of the pics.  The software's not as easy to use as the windows 
software that came with the camera, but I think I can get Kim to use it.

 - Olympus C-750 UltraZoom.  I couldn't get gtkam to initialize the 
camera, no matter what camera I selected.  The autoselect kept finding it 
as a C-2040Z, which would have been fine if it could have initialized the 
camera.  I suppose I'd have to use one of those card readers, but I don't 
know if any of them read Olympus xD cards.  This one's a deal-killer for 
my wife.  I'll have to dual boot if I can't get this one working.

3) Office suite.  We've been using Open Office at home for about a year 
now on Windows, so the switch to Fedora was a no-brainer.

4) Games.  My wife loves tux racer. :)  She wishes we could get frogger, 
but tux racer is okay with her. I haven't tried installing Neverwinter 
Nights on Fedora yet, but I hear that it works just fine, so games 
shouldn't be a problem.

5) Video.  I couldn't even get my video off of my Canon Optura 20 
camcorder and onto the computer with dvgrab.  I've left a message on 
the dvgrab message board and haven't heard back these last few days.  
I found a couple of messages in archives that hint that ieee1394 isn't 
working properly yet in linux, so that may be why I had the problems.  
I could control the camera, but just not capture the video over the 
firewire port.  Go figure.  I may try again when I get the new motherboard 
installed.  I don't think it's the board, though, since this works 
flawlessly in Win2K.

I found a couple of video editing applications that look like they might 
be pretty cool, though I don't know if they'll replace DVDLab.  However, 
since I can't even get my video, there's no way to tell.  This one's a 
deal-killer for me, as that's one of the major reasons I've upgraded my 
PC, so that I could do home video.

Bottom line:  Fedora is almost there for my personal needs.  Great look, 
good experience, but not all of the apps I need are working yet.  For now, 
I may have to look at purchasing XP to take advantage of the SATA ports 
on the new motherboard.

Hope this helps somebody out there.

Ben