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Date:      Thu, 28 Nov 2002 12:47:31 -0500
From:      Scott Robbins <scottro@nyc.rr.com>
To:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD as Desktop OS with support for Windows
Message-ID:  <20021128174731.GA20313@scottro11.homeunix.net>
In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.2.20021128155329.013e16e8@192.96.48.11>
References:  <5.1.0.14.2.20021128155329.013e16e8@192.96.48.11>

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On Thu, Nov 28, 2002 at 04:14:38PM +0200, Nelis Lamprecht wrote:
> Hi People
>=20
> I want to use FreeBSD as my desktop OS with Gnome but I still need to do=
=20
> Windows luser support. I have installed Gnome 2 on FreeBSD 4.7 Stable and=
=20
> now I'm trying to figure out what is the best solution. Does the Vmware=
=20
> port still work and or should I just install Samba and which Office=20
> Software would be best suited to use that is compatible with MS Word and=
=20
> Exel ? I know of Openoffice, Gnomeoffice and Staroffice but have had no=
=20
> experience using either.

At work I have the luxury of having a second computer (an old one) with
Win2k on it if I have to walk a user through something, or test
something before we put it into production.  I use vnc (in ports) to
manage the servers.

I use openoffice--my workstation is running 4.7.  I just downloaded
openoffice from openoffice.org and installed it following the directions
for Linux (using the FreeBSD binaries) more or less--untarred it into
tmp, then, as user cd'd to tmp and did ./setup.  It complained about
being unable to register a README file, I clicked ignore, and everything
went fine--I can read Word and Excel documents if necessary, and create
ones that are compatible for the users if I have to do so.

Quick note--at home I'm using CURRENT as workstation--started doing it
just for fun, but right now, everything is working perfectly--however,
the openoffice.org binaries didn't work properly--however, there is a
tbz package made just for current--I don't have the url handy at this
instant, but if you need it let me know (I found it by going to the
FreeBSD search mailing lists thing, put in openoffice and just chose
CURRENT as the only list to search and it was the first or second hit.)
That works perfectly in CURRENT.

If you simply need MS to walk a user through something from time to
time, vnc would probably be adequate--if you need one running MS handy
to test out things then you might have to use VMWare or the like. Or
take some box that a user has totally ruined and slap Win2k on it and
just use that when you have to use MS. :)

Hope this is of some help

--=20

Scott Robbins

PGP keyID EB3467D6
( 1B48 077D 66F6 9DB0 FDC2 A409 FA54 D575 EB34 67D6 )
gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys EB3467D6

Xander: It's time for me to act like a man... and hide.=20

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