Bud Rogers wrote:

Greg Thomas writes:

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On Sun, 5 Mar 2000, Avi Schwartz wrote:

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Sorry, but the ability to read a document or relay it back is different then doing collaborative work on some very large an complex documents. When I talk about complex documents I am talking about documents with embedded graphics, tables, Visio diagrams, VB macros, etc. Anyone that tells me that StarOffice does a very good job with Word/Excell 97 documents didn't use it in the above mentioned scenarios. Sorry.

It seems to me you are saying Linux is not ready for 1) complex electronic publishing scenarios, and 2) it's not ready to interoperate with MS products. It takes a big stretch of the imagination to then say that it is flat out not ready for the desktop. If normal people are using Linux on the desktop then is it not ready for the desktop? I mean, come one, one could easily say that Windows isn't ready for the internet because of it's lack of or poor implementation of common utilities but does that mean nobody is using Windows to access the internet? No. Also, I've worked for small, medium, large, and very large companies in a couple of different industries and at none of them were the documents as complex as you mention above (I'm not saying that they aren't elswhere).

I have to agree with Avi. I just changed jobs within our company. I got among other things, an office and a new NT box to play with. It was an eye opener. I am fast discovering the possibilites inherent in 300 people sharing Outlook and an Exchange server. It's all fairly new to most of the people in the company, so I'm not alone on the learning curve of how to share calendars and task lists and so on. And as more and more people get engaged in the process there is a kind of critical mass phenomenon going on. I don't know of anything even close to that for Linux. Staroffice will do most of what M$ Office will do. There is even a calendar server I think. But AFAIK there is nothing even close to the collaborative possibilities of Outlook/Exchange.

It does no good to talk about what you can do with Latex or Koffice or anything else. Corporate America is not going to drop what they're doing and learn Latex. They're going to ask if it can import/export Word files and Excel files and can they share documents on the Exchange server.

Is Linux ready for the desktop? Yes, it's ready for my desktop and yours. But it will never be ready for Corporate America's desktops until we can do everything the M$ boxes are doing already. Including but not limited to seamlessly and painlessly sharing M$ format documents

Using that 'moving target' logic, Linux will *never* have any apps that will be ready for corporate America's desktops. That is the same trap that MS led IBM and OS/2 into. Were you around when StarWriter or AmiPro were the dominant WPs? AmiPro 3.0 is still a better WP than Word. When Word for DOS came out people were not impressed. And, the same arguments being used against Linux based WPs were being used then to 'prove' that Word would never replace AmiPro. Entrenchment, incompatibilities, etc... Then M$ started using its now infamous illegal monoply tactics to capture market share and what do you know.... poof! Overnight Word was the 'standard'. Back then, with a tear in my eye, I switched to Word too. The same thing will happen again. Poof! WP2000, or whatever, will be the 'standard' on everyone's Linux desktop. Unless, or course, Gates Billions buys off the DOJ and/or Congress. Then the illegal tactics will continue a while longer and the shift to Linux will be a few years later. But it will come. Why? Read below.

And even that will not be enough. There is no incentive to change to something just as good. We will have to embrace and extend everything M$ is doing and make it better. That is the only way to break the strangle hold M$ has on Corporate America.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ is all the 'incentive' companies and folks need. A couple of years ago we completed 'upgrading' 30+ servers and 300+ workstations to run Win95 and some NT. It cost about $1.5M. The same upgrade to W2K would cost over $3M. If M$ tries to force the upgrade by cutting off WinXX <--> W2K file compatibilities, and they have, it will mean that folks will stay with Win95 and/or look else where. Upgrading our dept to Linux would cost $30 in OS software and we can use the same machines. Even if we purchased WP Office 2000 for each PC, which we will standardize on anyway, it would only cost an additional $3,000. What could we do with the other $2.97M? The mind boggles. Give it back to the tax payer? Why not! This is what will trigger the paradigm ground shift to Linux in massive numbers. People's and corporations own economic self-interest. Especially if MS gets them trapped... er.. 'upgraded' to W2K and starts the monthly license fee charge, which they have to pay via an internet connect that allows MS to scan their machine to renew their license. JLK -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/