Create Web Pages with Nvu
The Nvu web authoring system promises a lot, but falls short.
Tuesday, March 15th, 2005
For years, Macromedia’s Dreamweaver has been the gold standard in “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) web page editors (
Adobe GoLive? Not nearly as extensible.
Microsoft FrontPage? Yeah, right.) Unfortunately, Macromedia has chosen to release Dreamweaver solely for
Windows and
Mac OS X. (If you’d like to try to change the company’s opinion, enter a polite request at
http://www.macromedia.com/support/email/wishform/?6213= 6, but don’t hold your breath). So, what’s a penguin lover to do?
Michael Robertson, the guy behind
Linspire (formerly
Lindows) is now putting his money behind
Nvu (
http://www.nvu.com/), which describes itself as “A complete web authoring system for
Linux desktop users[ and] Microsoft Windows users[ that rivals] programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver.”
So, is it true? If you’re used to Dreamweaver, will you find Nvu equally compelling?
Not really.
Michael Robertson has gotten in trouble like this before. When he first announced Lindows in 2001, he made it sound like Lindows would be able to run Linux programs — and virtually any Windows program — without difficulty. But within a year, he’d changed his tune, promising only partial compatibility with Windows programs. He oversold his distribution, and now Robertson is overselling his web editor. That’s not to say that Nvu is a bad program; it’s just not what it’s being touted as.
