Avi Schwartz wrote:
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.
Then I won't tell you. Different strokes for different folks.
Whether I like Office or not is immaterial. The fact that all 1300 consultants in the company I work for and 100% of our clients use MS office, makes it the de facto standard. Until 1. the standard changes or 2. Linux will get a MS office (Yeah, right), Linux will be considered second rate citizen on the desktop.
Let me guess... The Minneapolis based headhunter, AIC? (They charge the client $60-120/hour and pay you $35-60/hour plus you cover your own expenses.) Your company may have standardized on MS office but that doesn't make it a standard except for your company. Other companies have standardized on WP8 (where I work) and folks work collaboratively using it. Companies are doing the same with SO 5.1a. It depends on what you are used to and what you can afford. The 'afford' thing is going to loom large when folks realize how expensive in software, licenses and hardware upgrading to Win2000 will be. Also, people have to standardize on the same version of Word because of data structure incompatibilities created by MS to force them to 'upgrade $$$'. So the idea of 'standardization' is not realized in a totally MS shop either, unless you freeze at a version or pay the price. Linux will never get APIs that will allow running MS office on a Linux platform. To be compatible with MS would require that the API's perform the same on both platforms. Who would want to deliberately install buggy APIs in order to reproduce a WinXX environment? That's like putting a Ugo engine in a Saturn.
Sure, you can find your way around many things, but this is not what most end users are looking for. What they want is the ability to run and use the same software they use at work.
Not necessarily, unless they are doing office work on their PCs at home. Then the question of costs arise again. Does the company pay for two sets of software and licenses so the employee can work at work and at home? Or, does the employee bootleg a copy on her home PC, without without a wink from the boss? Does the company pay for the hardware upgrade on the home PC? Bogus, my friend. I would guesstimate that less than 10% of employees (not counting self-employed consultants) in the public sector are supported at home by their employer. Network connections from home to work are too slow or, if fast, too expense for generalized use. Except for programmers like you and me, few want or will bring their work home at night. When your headhunters see the paradigm ground shift they will change faster than you can say "Linux". BTW, Avi, have you checked out KDevelop 1.0? It is a really sweet C++ GUI RAD tool! 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/