Martin Ling wrote:
>
> On Sun, Apr 30, 2000 at 01:19:55PM -0400, Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
>
> > > Sun have produced StarOffice, which is fully compatible with MS Office
> > > and free for personal non-commercial use. It's distributed with several
> > > of the Linux distributions.
> >
> > Yeah, but its not fully comparable, feature for feature. It only has
> > file format compatibility.
>
> For one thing, I don't see why it should have to be feature for feature
> comparable. I said it was fully compatible, by which I mean it can read
> and write files in MS Office's formats such that users can use either
> with no hassle.
Sure, but WordPad can do the same in Win95, and I don't consider that
much of a word processor either.
>
> One of my gripes with MS Office (I'm not saying MS shouldn't be allowed
> to do this, it just annoys me) is the continual new versions. The vast
> majority of users never use 90% of the features (hence why StarOffice is
> a viable alternative for many - not that it's particularly lacking in
> features itself). As soon as businesses start to upgrade, files start
> circulating in the new formats,
For doing things like writing letters, etc. you don't need many
features. If you are doing any kind of publishing production, you HAVE
to have those features.
>
> > > (I would add Corel to that list, but their distribution is currently a
> > > little quirky - I look forward to the next version).
> >
> > The 'quirky' comment I've heard elsewhere, mostly because the header
> > normally found in Debian is not present. It can be put back in with no
> > problem, but the point of the Corel implementation was to make it easily
> > installable by a newbie on an average desktop machine.
>
> And this it does very well. Let me say that when I first saw a Corel
> system running I was *very* impressed - they had obviously put a great
> deal of work into making the interface consistent and easy to use,
> including writing a lot of their own software.
>
> However, when I obtained a copy and tried the install, it had problems
> on quite a few machines, including some with quite basic common
> hardware.
Could you give me a list? I deal with a few linux people at corel and
I'd be interested in passing along feedback... and for my own
edification as well, as I'm debating using that release for my servers.
>
> I'm not someone who spreads rumours, and I'm not someone who acts with
> prejudice. Any comments I make are based on my own experience and
> knowledge.
Ok. Its just that that particular adjective seems to be common among
conventional linuxheads when confronted with CLOS, so I'm wondering if
everybody has just read the same review by some sourpuss.
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