[vox] Rumor has it SACLUG is dead.

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Bob Scofield (scofield at omsoft.com):

> I get your point about applications.  My point was that was that
> some people, like me, believe that if Microsoft was accepting of
> Linux, then there would be more proprietary Linux applications just
> because of the way the business world works.

{shrug}  That plus $2.25 will get you ride on Muni.  ;->

> As for me personally, all I have is need of one word processor.  But
> for business reasons, I use three.  I have to share documents with
> people who use Windows and Macs.  I have to produce documents in
> Word format and WordPerfect format.  And while I like Libre Office,
> I still think WordPerfect 8 for Linux was the greatest word
> processor ever made.

It was pretty great!

I really ought to do a revision of the WP for Linux HOWTO.  It needs
updating about how to supply the necessary lib support on modern Linux
distributions to run the WP 8.x for Linux binaries -- not to mention
that you need IA32 support generically.  Yes, it _is_ still possible,
and there are folks who do it.  Still. 

I still have a copy of WordPerfect 8.1 Personal Edition for i386 Linux.
Unobtainium these days, generally.  And of course WP 8.0 DPE is still
freely downloadable, as always.

> I'm really not up on Itunes.  But I think there's a version that
> runs on Windows.  So it seems like it runs on Macs and it runs on
> Windows.  But it doesn't run on Linux.  I find that fishy.

Both are platforms where they are optimally able to corral users and
prevent them _mostly_ from getting to DRMed content and making local
non-DRM-obscured copies of the bitstream.  Doing the latter on Linux is
pretty easy and there is no central OS authority who would attempt to
sabotage that effort.

Also, on both platforms, they are better able to force out user upgrades
to new versions, which they've repeatedly done when somebody has figured
out a way to make the iTunes application do something they don't want
permitted.  On Linux, the user is far likelier to be able to assert
control and be able to stay with an old code version if he/she wishes.

That having been said, you can run the Win32 port of iTunes on x86 Linux
using PlayOnLinux (a proprietary superset of WINE).  Have fun!

Occasionally, someone figures out how to do the same with plain ol'
WINE, but then the next release of iTunes reliably breaks that.
Coincidence?  Possibly.  Maybe, maybe not.

Of course, you can also always just do Linux -> VirtualBox -> MS-Windows
within VirtualBox -> iTunes Win32.

> Thanks for your response.

Yr. welcome.  Old FAQ about all of this at 'iTunes' on
http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Apps/AV/ may still be useful, or not.