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Comment A great use for Opera Unite (Score 1) 1007

I agree with the TrueCrypt plain text file, but would only encrypt the file, and instead use Opera Unite to share it between all my web enabled devices. Of course using a fairly simple cipher and a favorite author, band name, song name, etc. it is relatively easy to make a memorable and secure password.

Comment InDesign Replacement (Score 1) 270

I've been using Adobe since 1991, Windows and Mac before then, and still struggling to be a Linux convert (I'm one year in, but still not Windows free... give me strength my brothers, give me strength!).

Photoshop: Sorry can't stand it. Nor any of the replacements. I keep praying Adobe will make Fireworks open source. Fireworks is just so much easier to use. Adobe, are you listening?

Illustrator: No decent replacement. A very good application though.

InDesign: You know what... I've actually found the OpenOffice is an amazingly capable replacement for InDesign. It nicely fits the 80-20 rule and has some features and capabilities that InDesign still hasn't been able to do in 18+ years (like formatted bullets with spacing.) The only problem with OOo as a replacement is backwards compatability issues in ODT documents between release versions. But then so do Adobe products.

Comment Re:That's the beauty of open source... (Score 1) 369

When I first loaded GNOME, 10 years after last using it, I was truly shocked that I could see absolutely NO, zero, none, changes. I kicked it's wheels for a few days, then just like the 10 years ago, I switched to KDE and found it so much more useful that I would never have looked back...

But that's not why I'm posting here... since the door is opened to looking at what are some of the values in the 3 common OSs, i.e. Windows, OS X, and LINUX (again I am user of all of them), I want to point out to this group why it is that I can't give up my Windows system....

Some of us out here in the wilds (currently living and working in Vietnam) need to work in multiple languages. Not 1 language now, and another language later, but multiple languages. This is where Windows beats those other 2 hands down! Not by using any Windows features, but by using Keyboard drivers. There is a lovely free open source Vietnamese keyboard driver, called Unikey, that makes this all possible for me. A quick Ctrl+Key stroke and I am now typing in another language without changing my OS language or settings (which I don't want to do anyway). Another quick Ctrl+Key stroke and I am back to typing in English (or whatever my default language is). Neither LINUX or OS X can do this for me and it is the single barrier that keeps me from switching permanently, because literally every single day I need to type in Vietnamese, but work in English.

Every time I bring this up to LINUXers I hear that this is the wrong way to do things, e.g Keyboard drivers. I guess they just don't understand the concept of multi-lingualism. This isn't about I am an English speaker, or I am a French speaker, etc. This is about I am a "XXX" speaker that must also work in "YYY" language.
Patents

Submission + - Microsoft, Sue Me First

corigo writes: Supporters of Free Open Source, Oasis Open Document, and other Free and Open Source solutions have asked Microsoft to throw down the guantlet. Sue Me First says Christian Einfeldt of Digital Tipping Point and he's not alone. More and more people are signing up and challenging Microsoft to put there lawyers where there mouth is. It sounds to me like the open source community is far from running scared. Will Microsoft have the cajones to step up to the plate, or is Microsoft just continuing to use a scare campaign with no real faith in their ability to leverage the patent control they claim the open source is infringing on?

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