Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 07:58:08 -0700 (PDT) From: David Wolfskill <dhw@whistle.com> Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: StarOffice & wordperfect Message-ID: <199808251458.HAA22667@pau-amma.whistle.com> In-Reply-To: <19980825075441.12853@welearn.com.au>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
>Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 07:54:41 +1000 >From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> >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. Indeed. >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. Just as you quoted "see" (above), I believe that it would have been appropriate to quote "standard" -- given the context. :-} >But their pathetic skills and tools are more than adequate to their [perceived] >needs. Who am I to force them to change? I suppose that depends on various things, such as why you don't (or do, as the case may be) use similar tools. I certainly can't answer that for you; I can try to answer it for me, though my answers don't always make sense to others. >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. And suppose >POOF!< a way suddenly appeared. What reason is there to believe that the originator of the proprietary format(s) in question wouldn't change things? Granted, they can't change the format of something that's already written; granted also that they can't make changes instantaneously. They can, however, make life miserable for folks who actually want to have & use data formats that allow systems running different(! shudder!) environments to communicate & interoperate. From what I've seen of their history, they excel at that. >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. They also get a lobotomy so they forget about you??!? I would find that rather surprising; perhaps I'm merely easily surprised. In all seriousness, you bring up some interesting & important issues (which happen to strike home with me because of a "conversation" my wife & I had over the weekend). These are concerns where any thinking person must make an individual choice -- I seriously doubt that there's a "one size fits all" approach that is at all defensible. Cheers, david -- David Wolfskill UNIX System Administrator dhw@whistle.com voice: (650) 577-7158 pager: (650) 371-4621 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199808251458.HAA22667>