Subject: Re: Linux Desktop Publishing - Scribus
From: Fielder George Dowding (fgdowding@iceworm-enterprises.net)
Date: Tue Feb 25 2003 - 17:38:18 AKST
Greetings all you budding DTP people =;-)}}}
I don't use Scribus v0.6 (Woody). However, I would like to see those
who insist on using MS Publisher to switch, then I could use it on a
Linux box to do what I need to do instead of suffering once each
month to use MS Publisher 2002 (I think) on a Windows (98SE) box.
Oh! Pain! <limp wrist of left hand held against forehead whilst
gazing heavenward>
My objection to these monolithic behemoths designed to emulate MS or
Mac applications is it is simply not the Unix way. Please visit
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/index.html
to learn Eric Raymond's studied opinion on the subject.
There is much blabber regarding "steep" learning curve for Unix
tools. Aside from the lack of understanding of what "learning curve"
is about, one who makes such an observation apparently a) does not
have anything very serious to do, b) is in a hurry "just to get
something out", c) hates computers, d) never has had the pleasure of
compiling and installing a kernel, e) etc.
Please do not think the above listed items are put-downs. The
problem arises when these monoliths are used for a purpose contrary
to the list.
For example, publishing a monthly newsletter is a serious activity.
It is not just a "one-off" item because the assumption is it will
continue month by month, until the organization producing it dies,
is killed, or decides it no longer needs a monthly newsletter. So,
rather than getting sucked down the black hole of monolith
emulation, I do recommend switching to (La)TeX and friends.
Similarly, I have seen, with mine very own eyes, one of our number
struggle with Linux emulations "just to get something out" for his
business. I am in the second year of a similar morass because I had
to get the work out and I could find no Gnu/Linux/OpenSource/etc.
tool that did the job. About ten years ago, I came to the
understanding I could not do developement and production at the same
time. Well, I am still trying to do both. I am somewhat soothed to
find Mr. Raymond has the problem of focus also. One of these days
...
Thank you Bob for reminding us of Scribus. fgd.
On Tue, 25 Feb 2003 14:56:54 -0900
Bob <accessideas@subdimension.com> wrote:
>
>
> > Are there any DTP people on the list?
> > Can anyone speak for the quality of Scribus?
>
> I've used scribus on debian woody.
> The latest version looks like it has some improvements.
>
> It's a work in progress. As yet it's neither as powerful as
> Pagemaker no= r as=20
> easy to use as ms publisher.
> It is IMHO a step in the right direction if you want a linux
> application,==20
> GPL, and reasonable gui. =20
>
> Look forward to a presentation by Fielder on TeX.=20
> It however doesn't let you push text and image boxes (frames)
> around the==20
> screen.. so for qed ( quick and dirty) go for scribus. =20
>
> Bob Pelz accessideas@subdimension.com
>
> ---------
> To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org>
> with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.
>
>
>
-- Fielder George Dowding, Chief Iceworm dba Iceworm Enterprises, Anchorage, Alaska Since 1976 - Over 25 Years of Service.--------- To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org> with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a23 : Tue Feb 25 2003 - 17:29:37 AKST