LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Alan Kennington <akenning@dog.topology.org>
  To  : LinuxSA <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 10:47:02 +1030

SO and WP both useless!? (almost)

Topic: Linux doesn't make it in the real corporate world.

Well, now I've given both Star Office and Word Perfect
a go as a word processor compatible with MS Word
in a serious work context for 5 weeks.

Result: both fail.

Star Office creates real kludge .doc files which
miss out heaps of stuff and do lots of stuff wrong.
EPS file inclusions disappear if the EPSI
picture preview is not done right (and I don't
know how to do this -- sometimes it works,
sometimes not). Also, various line spacing go
wrong, font sizes are wrong etc. etc. etc.
I've been told by the recipient of my MS Word-97
outputs from Star Office that they will organise
for me to have an up-to-date version of Word 97 (or whatever)
installed on my machine. But it's linux.
So I guess that means I have to load up a Windows OS and
run it in a virtual PC, or else put a windows
partition on my mere 4GB of over-used disk, or else
get an external disk (on PC card) to run windows
as dual boot - or just wipe linux and start again
with windows 98, which means that I will not be able
to do all the linux things -- software development,
X windows, traffic analysis etc. etc.

Word Perfect didn't get past the first stage.
It can't even display its icons correctly
on either my Toshiba laptop or on my 
nice modern K6-2/400 with modern video card
and monitor. The incomprehensible results
on screen make WP useless to me.

So there you have it.
In a serious work environment, where people
are paying me money to write reports, they
cannot read my documents correctly, and I have
to effectively abandon linux.

This is what I feared woud be the case.

It's pointless saying that my OS is the best
and windows is rubbish when youare told that you
will be paid lots of money if and _only_ if
you produce outputs that they can read in
a "standard" format -- i.e. windows, as far as they're
concerned.

This is why I continue to say:
"linux needs another 2 years to make it on the client PS",
which I think is not a controversial view.

Well, now I'm going to buy an external disk and
PC card to load windows onto.
This is a real pain!!!

Cheers,
Alan Kennington.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
   name: Dr. Alan Kennington
 e-mail: akenning@dog.topology.org
website: http://topology.org/
   city: Adelaide, South Australia
 coords: 34.89744 S, 138.58970 E
pgp-key: http://topology.org/key_ak2.asc
company: Topology Technology Australia Pty. Ltd.
    ACN: 090 599 152
website: http://topoz.com/
saying1: `The Internet is the parliament of the people.' ak 28/5/1999.
saying2: `Seek truth from facts.' mao or deng, 1970s?
saying3: `Let a 1000 flowers bloom, let a 1000 schools contend.' mao, 1970s?
saying4: `Cut down the tall poppies.' mao, a few months later.
saying5: `Life is 99% overheads.' ak 7/12/1999.

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