Max Hetrick wrote: > John wrote: > >> My opinion I don't find it really an off topic consideration to think >> about. I even use it on my laptop. I have clients that use it strictly >> for desktop use only and not as a server because they can not afford to >> buy Win XP or Vista. Introduce them to K3B, Mplayer or XMMS and there >> happy. > > I agree. I use CentOS as both my desktop and server system at home, > work, and on my laptop. I think it makes a great desktop, but I still > thought it needed discussed before creating pages. Ultimately, the > CentOS wiki team are who get the final say. :) A CentOS desktop/workstation category would certainly seem to be of interest, particularly with all the disgruntled Vista users wandering around looking for viable alternatives that will work on slightly older hardware these days. Including getting desktop applications working properly (openoffice, evolution, PIM functions, syncing with PDAs, multimedia, TV/PVRs/MythTV, http://wiki.centos.org/TipsAndTricks/MultimediaOnCentOS, etc.) would IMHO fall under this category. The Laptops pages are also relevant. Could list compatibility options for M$ apps including Crossover Office, VMware, etc. It would not be necessary to include all the information found elsewhere (could easily get out of hand and OT), but a set of pointers to useful information organized under a Desktop/Workstation banner would be helpful. The long-awaited "year of the Linux desktop" will arrive sooner or later. More and better useful information for desktop users could help make it sooner, and CentOS is definitely a viable candidate for a stable desktop platform. If the category is defined as broad enough to include scientific/engineering workstations and applications, then the word "Visualization" in the title of this thread is certainly appropriate as a specialized sub-topic, if not in the title of the category. On my system (with some 3rd party repos) "yum search visualization" returns the following: 3ddesktop.i386 : OpenGL program for switching virtual desktops in 3D bcfg2.noarch : Configuration management system ds9.i386 : Astronomical Data Visualization Application dx.i386 : Open source version of IBM's Visualization Data Explorer fityk.i386 : Tool for fitting and analyzing data grace.i386 : Numerical Data Processing and Visualization Tool grads.i386 : Tool for easy acces, manipulation, and visualization of data graphviz.i386 : Graph Visualization Tools k3dsurf.i386 : Visualize and manipulate multidimensional surfaces libsnack.i386 : Snack Sound Toolkit ncarg-devel.i386 : A Fortran and C based software package for scientific visualization ncarg.i386 : A Fortran and C based software package for scientific visualization perl-GraphViz-Data-Structure.noarch : Visualise data structures php-pear-Image-GraphViz.noarch : Interface to AT&T's GraphViz tools pymol.i386 : PyMOL Molecular Graphics System Some of those fall more into the eye-candy category, but that's OK and within the originally-proposed scope. Google Earth, mentioned earlier in the thread, is visualization in this sense and could fit somewhere in the hierarchy too but doesn't show up on the list as AFAIK there is no CentOS RPM available for it. I'm using the Google-provided version that lives in the user home directory. [ Then one could get into other specialized open-source applications including Octave, R, mathomatic, Maxima, etc. that work well on CentOS but may not be available out-of-the-box - but I'm probably off in the weeds of my own interests a bit too far here. :-) Could also provide a link to our friends in Scientific Linux. ] Bottom line: +1 for a home for Desktop/Workstation category in the Wiki. Perhaps this could be considered in organizing "WebSite Ver 2". Phil
