Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 07:54:41 +1000 From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: wwoods@cybcon.com Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: StarOffice & wordperfect Message-ID: <19980825075441.12853@welearn.com.au> In-Reply-To: <XFMail.980824070205.wwoods@cybcon.com>; from William Woods on Mon, Aug 24, 1998 at 07:02:05AM -0700 References: <Marcel-1.46-0824122432-06cZsav@duffner.konstanz.netsurf.de> <XFMail.980824070205.wwoods@cybcon.com>
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On Mon, Aug 24, 1998 at 07:02:05AM -0700, William Woods wrote:
> > I installed it only to 'see' it and know if and how it works.
> > I don't see it as a 'killer-app', nor would I use/welcome the
> > MS-Office-Suite, if there was a port to Linux/FreeBSD.
>
> Well, I would both use and welcome a MS Office like program, for a couple
> reasons. Unlike a lot of people, I use FreeBSD not as a hobby system, but a
> work system. I need Word Processing, spread sheets, database and would greeatly
> welcome a program like Power Point.
I can sort of manage without for my own work. When I need a nice letter
or invoice, I can email the basic text to the friendly Macintosh
consultants down the road, run down there with my pocket calculator,
format them and print them out. It happens rarely enough that the
coffee and cake makes it worth the effort :-)
Where I have real problems, though, is in accessing information that is
shared by groups I'm forced to work with from time to time. Usually I'm
the only person not running microsoft, and they share word documents,
powerpoint presentations, spreadsheets, etc. I have no easy way to read
these, and it's a real bother when I need to alter a couple of words
and return the file in a usable format for them.
Of course, these people have very few skills, and cannot cope with
saving files in other formats, cannot "see" a file if it hasn't got the
right extension (even .rtf, .csv are invisible), and believe that I'm
the only person on earth (as they know it) whose system is so inferior
that it cannot cope with standard office documents.
But their pathetic skills and tools are more than adequate to their
needs. Who am I to force them to change? As the only non-MS person
among a brainwashed and helpless bunch, I must change. So what does
that mean? As far as I know, there is still no way to deal with the
latest versions of all of these files under FreeBSD.
I have to run MS-Office, always the latest version, to read and produce
files they can deal with. For that, I need to run a microsoft OS, again
the latest version, and for that I need a machine that's hefty enough
to handle it, i.e., with much more muscle than I need for FreeBSD. I
have to upgrade the software and the OS when new releases come out, to
read their new file formats. With these upgrades, I will have to
upgrade the hardware to withstand the new demands.
The cost of maintianing that machine, solely to read and edit their
documents, would come to several thousand dollars per year. I don't
spend that much money on my whole network! Unless I can find a reliable
way to deal with their files under FreeBSD, now and through future MS
changes, I need to weigh up whether it is better to purchase and fit
out a machine for the task, or not have the work.
The most palatable choice is to refuse the work. So what happens then?
Those people learn that yes, everyone (that they know of) does indeed run
microsoft and if you send out a microsoft-produced document it's a
standard format that everyone can read. I teach them that by
withdrawing from their known world.
--
Regards,
-*Sue*-
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