Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 14:18:24 -0800 (PST) From: Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu> To: Dave Hummel <HUMMDN36@BUFFALOSTATE.EDU> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: freebsd/linux in an office environment Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980326132357.27389A-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu> In-Reply-To: <01IV4GC7NNKM9JD8J9@BUFFALOSTATE.EDU>
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On Thu, 26 Mar 1998, Dave Hummel wrote: > I'm writing a paper for a class whose topic is going to revolve around > using FreeBSD/Linux workstations instead of NT. There is no doubt that > FreeBSD/Linux excel as servers, but there seems to be some doubt about > using them as workstations due to lack of expertise of users and availabilty > of user software including wordprocessors, spreadsheets, accounting packages > and whatever else a 'typical' business (including a University) may have to > use. > > This is more than a paper topic, I think it's an important issue. The free > unices are getting great publicity as servers. Many people seem to > be fed up with MS, and right now seems to be the time to promote the unices as > a viable workstation option. > > My problem is that I don't have the resources to try out commercial software > that would fit the bill. If anyone has experience with a UNIX type > office setup (for instance, a lan with only X terminals or PC's running X), > could you please share a tidbit or two of wisdom concerning: You might try their web pages and e-mail contact and ask for a demo/trial. If they don't answer or don't know what you're talking about, that's part of it. > > 1) Just how good are the commerical Office Suites for UNIX compared to > their Windows counterparts? How does the price compare? The prices by comparison are horrendous, provided you can get a price quote at all. The price of this kind of software far exceeds what can be saved by getting the basic operating system free. It seems I'd have to pay for a word processor alone what I'd otherwise pay for an entire suite. Also, the unix products are less likely (assuming they exist at all) to offer academic discounts. I was ready to buy Corel's WordPerfect, which supposedly runs on SCO unix and therefore on the SCO emulation in FreeBSD. I asked a few questions (Are the 6.0 and 5.2 versions different, or one product? If different, how? Are these X-Windows programs or not?) and it was sort of Alice-in- Wonderland; I got a variety of price quotes from about $149 to $500, none of which seemed to be firmly attached to anything. I never got the same price quote twice. I gave up. You could try www.corel.com. > > 2) How much software is available for UNIX compared to Windows? What isn't > available? There are three major office suites: Microsoft, Corel (WordPerfect etc.), and IBM (Lotus--Lotus Notes etc.). Insofar as the information can be gathered, my experience is that the Wintel versions of these suites are the leaders, and what's available for any unix platform is always secondary. The entire suite may not be available. The StarOffice work-alike for the MS Office suite may be an important option. The version I originally used was a little clunky and couldn't always read documents created in MS Word (for example) even though I dumbed down the version level. I think it's been improved, though. > 3) Is such a setup viable for a large business or university? By viable I guess > I mean: Is it possible to set up a UNIX network for 'typical users' that > has all the functionality of an NT network? For instance, it seems to me > that at my school the typical user uses Netscape, MS Word, Excel, > Powerpoint, Access. More generally, they're using a word processor, a spreadsheet, a data base (Access), and a program that creates presentations (Powerpoint), as well as a browser (the browser is not a problem). The ones you list are the MS office suite. > (The one thing that is used here that could not > be handled in a UNIX-only network is Visual Basic.) Looking at the > situation here, I would estimate the a UNIX solution would maintain > most of our current functionality with the exception of Visual Basic and > possibly Powerpoint (which is not used very much). I really don't know > what type of software is used in most office environments. The software that's included in office suites is typical--the same types of programs people are using at your school. The other software typically used in an office environment would be calendar/scheduling software and, now, electronic mail. I think IBM's effort to compete in this market is based on Lotus Notes and its capabilities (with which I am largely un- familiar) for this kind of intra-office communications, including, e.g., editing documents and keeping track of the changes made or recommended by different readers. And Lotus 1-2-3 (the spreadsheet) is good. The attraction of the Microsoft suite is that it's becoming the standard, and the word processor and spread sheet are just about the best around. Another application in use in many organizations is some kind of desk-top publishing software. Most organizations (businesses, university departments, non-profits of all kinds) have some need to produce brochures or circulars or whatever. Thus, the pr department where I work uses PageMaker. PageMaker, Quark Express, Ventura Publisher, and many variants, plus, possibly, photoediting stuff (Adobe Photoshop) are Wintel or possibly Mac products/platform, whether you buy the most elaborate versions or something simpler. Small businesses and organizations also need accounting and tax preparation software. Here again, it's Wintel stuff or possibly Mac. So is personal finance (Quicken, for example). I've found this rather discouraging...and ultimately a sort of retelling of the loss of the desktop to the MSWindows operating system. > > 4) Where can I find more information? > > Thank you for your time, > Dave Annelise To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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