Re: Replacement for Abiword: LyX? Openoffice?
On Wed, 2003-10-29 at 07:52, Terry Hancock wrote:
>
> What am I missing here? Does anyone who advocates this
> program actually USE it? If so, what kind of hardware are
> you running?! Not a rhetorical question -- I've loaded
> this program up to evaluate it several times, with
> gradually increasing hardware caps, but each time I get the
> same results. I'm starting to get a complex about it. ;-)
I use OpenOffice.org to do all word processing. Our company (31 staff)
uses it as standard, and I install it as standard for some of our
clients. I am just now involved in a roll-out of Debian-based desktop
systems to 140 staff for one of our clients. OpenOffice.org (using
Debian packages) is key to that, and the machines are being delivered
from Dell with everything pre-installed.
I have created documents of all sizes (well, 1-1000 pages), standard
templates, proposals, technical reviews, letters, presentations,
diagrams, spreadsheets and so forth with no problems. I do this on a
PIII 850 with 512M RAM, but others in our office use it without issue on
AMD 600 class machines and so forth. We are halfway through a project
to rewrite New Zealand's electoral roll systems using 100% open-source
software (mainly Linux, Apache, Perl and PostgreSQL) and all
documentation for that project from proposal to operation has been done
using OpenOffice.org.
I've been running Linux on the desktop full-time for around 5 years now
and I can't see anything else with anywhere near the reliability and
functionality of OpenOffice.org. Abiword and KOffice are both getting
_much_ closer, but they are still trying to catch a moving target.
I would say that if you have problems of the level you are talking about
then you need to take a look at your hardware.
> I expect a program like a word processor to pretty much
> work without special effort on a Debian system, once you
> run "apt-get install" on it. I'm running Debian Woody, but
> that shouldn't make any difference anyway, should it?
I don't think OpenOffice.org was shipped within Debian Woody, so
presumably you are getting the packages from somewhere else.
> I think this is particularly relevant to Debian Jr, since
> typically, kids will be using hand-me-down computers, not
> the latest bleeding edge stuff.
I don't know if kids will _typically_ be using hand-me-down computers,
but it is likely to be quite common that they will be. IMO my own kids
are too young to be using their own computers yet (6 & 3 years), and
their first ones will definitely be hand-me-downs. They currently use
my wife's (dual Athlon 2100) but not for word processing.
ISTM that kids are going to be wanting things that handle clipart and
graphics well however, and I think OpenOffice.org does that pretty well.
Cheers,
Andrew.
PS.
There is one issue I am aware of in handling a particular model of video
card which does cause regular crashes (there is a workaround on the
OpenOffice bugzilla) but I believe that is fixed with 1.1. I have not
encountered the problem myself.
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