on Sun, Dec 10, 2000 at 10:31:10AM +0000, Tom Huckstep (tomhuckstep@bigfoot.com) wrote: > I'd like to introduce some of my friends to Debian. However, they > expect an OS to be simple to set up and use, and to look very nice. > > I am quite happy to set it up for them, I'm sure that they will have > no problems getting used to the Gnome desktop environment. However, > there are two things that they will demand: office software and a > decent printer. So, I have two questions: > > 1) What office software is available (preferably free, but non-free > is fine) for Debian? First, I prefer *no* office suite [1]. And grant that this is a matter of preference. For text, mail, web, and presentation, I'll use vim, mutt, Netscape|Galeon|Skipstone|w3m, and Netscape. For WYSIWYG document editing, AbiWord and StarOffice, that bloated stuck pig of an office suite [2] (distant second). I don't particularly care for spreadsheets. When they're absolutely unavioidable, Gnumeric and/or sc, a text-mode spreadsheet with shell integration. For presentations, I tend to prefer Netscape or StarOffice, that bloated stuck pig of an office suite. If the issue is compatibility with Microsoft Office document formats, you'll find that AbiWord and Gnumeric both manage fairly admirably, though StarOffice, that bloated stuck pig of an office suite, has the best document compatibility. My suggestion is to move with all due hast to open document standards. I've also used Applix (~1998) and WP. I wouldn't particularly recommend either. > 2) Are there any printers recommended for use with Debian? Pretty much any postscript capable laserprinter. I'd strongly discourage inkjet -- while it "works" with GNU/Linux, but the underlying technology is fatally flawed: it's slow, problem-prone, and expensive. Laserprint will save time and money in the long run. ---------- Notes: [1] At some point after I die, I *will* write the oft-promised essay "The Office Suite is Dead". Meantime, suffice to say that the office suite was created to solve a marketing problem -- selling software people didn't want to compete with software they did want, by bundling it with other software they also wanted. When software is free, this marketing rationale is largely irrelevant. [2] Note that I've written an "abbreviation" substitution in vim to insert the text ", that bloated stuck pig of an office suite, " every time I type "StarOffice". Not that this is any indication of the true merits of the project. I'm lead to believe by Brian Behlendorf that the free version, OpenOffice, is making great strides in overcoming several of the principle complaints against SO. -- Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://www.netcom.com/~kmself Evangelist, Zelerate, Inc. http://www.zelerate.org What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? There is no K5 cabal http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ http://www.kuro5hin.org
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