Open source wins again...

[Maxxarcade]

Today my Boss had to open an Excel spreadsheet to print before going to a meeting. His MS Excel kept asking for the CD (which he could not find of course) and he couldn't get it to work otherwise. He sent the file to me and I printed it right away using OpenOffice.org 2.2

Where would we be without Firefox and Openoffice (and VLC, and 7-Zip, etc,? )

[Newbie2]

Re: Open source wins again...

Where would we be without Firefox and Openoffice (and VLC, and 7-Zip, etc,? )

Everyone using Windows would be using IE or Safari for Windows (currently beta) as their default browser, and everyone would either have to get COREL WordPerfect or MS Office for their office suite.

With compressed folder apps, everyone would be using the built-in .ZIP function thing in Windows, and that doesn't work with other types of compressed folders (like .rar, .7z, etc.).

With media players, everyone would either be using Windows Media Player, QuickTime, RealPlayer, etc.


That's what I think.

[Topcat]

Re: Open source wins again...

I just wish a FEASIBLE open source operating system would be developed. Linux is fun to tinker with, and is great for servers, but its desperately lacking for a daily use system. I'm lazy, I don't want to type commands anymore, all that died for me when I stopped using MSDOS 6.22 over a decade ago. If an open source OS was to be developed that was clean, stable, secure, un-bloated, and was able to reliably port windows-based appz, M$ would be bankrupted or atleast forced to revamp their end-user tactics. Its just ridiculous that if you change your motherboard you have to buy a new license if you want to remain legit.

[PeteS in CA]

Re: Open source wins again...

COREL WordPerfect

I've used versions 10, 11 and 12, and all have a very annoying intermittent quirk when you try to highlight a word by double-clicking on it. It may instead highlight an entire line or paragraph, and if you don't notice it you delete a block of text when you think you're replacing a single word. I'll take MS Publisher, Word or even Works over COREL WordPerfect any day and twice on Sundays.

[Maxxarcade]

Re: Open source wins again...

I just wish a FEASIBLE open source operating system would be developed. Linux is fun to tinker with, and is great for servers, but its desperately lacking for a daily use system. I'm lazy, I don't want to type commands anymore, all that died for me when I stopped using MSDOS 6.22 over a decade ago. If an open source OS was to be developed that was clean, stable, secure, un-bloated, and was able to reliably port windows-based appz, M$ would be bankrupted or atleast forced to revamp their end-user tactics. Its just ridiculous that if you change your motherboard you have to buy a new license if you want to remain legit.

Exactly the way I see it

My biggest complaint about Linux is the damn multimedia hassles. If there's not a codec problem, there's always some website with embedded video that won't work, no matter what plugins you have. Then there's the issue of trying to work with files over a network. Sure you can go into Konqerer and view them just as if they are local, but double clicking on them never just plays them with the program you want, if it even knows what the files is in the first place.

And I should not have to go into the command line for any thing at all... Sure it's nice when there's no other option, or for recovery purposes, or certain server apps, but how often do people need to use the recovery console in WinXP??

Then along come the hard core Linux users who insist that everything is so easy and capable of doing so much more than Windows, but they never seem to be doing the simple things. They talk about how their desktop can rotate on a cube, so they can have 20 different text consoles open at once, all while watching a movie, etc.. Until the software base of Linux can match Windows (especially games and multimedia) Linux doesn't have a chance on the desktop.

Though be aware that I do use Linux on all of my servers, and some other dedicated machines... but I don't think it can ever replace my WinXP desktop system.

[gonzo0815]

Re: Open source wins again...

Recently i see more and more people switching over to Linux for desktop use.
And neither of those is considered a geek or a console junkie (but obviously they aren't gamers) .

I think it is like smoking, MS make s you addictive and lazy
However, i agree that the basic stuff would have to be much more easier to get my ass moving

If i configuring a server, i don`t need any GUI stuff, but to get my desktop managed, i won`t want to tinker with complicated & cryptic console hacking.
But i have to admit, that i haven`t tried any modern distribution for that recently.
As far as people told me, at least to alter the screen resolution does not requires configfile hacking anymore

May be i should try one of those modern distribution like Unbuntu as second installation.

[bgavin]

Re: Open source wins again...

The fun with MS Office is just getting started.

For example, Office 2007 has changed the file formats, so older versions of Office cannot read the files. I've seen the Excel problem first-hand, the others are still unverified.

Next, Microsoft is talking about removing ownership of Office, and making it a lease-only product, probably from the Internet. That will go over like a lead balloon with the military folks that do not allow internet access to their users.

Between these policies and Vista, Microsoft appears to self-emasculating itself.

No great loss.

[Maxxarcade]

Re: Open source wins again...

Recently i see more and more people switching over to Linux for desktop use.
And neither of those is considered a geek or a console junkie (but obviously they aren't gamers) .

I think it is like smoking, MS make s you addictive and lazy
However, i agree that the basic stuff would have to be much more easier to get my ass moving

If i configuring a server, i don`t need any GUI stuff, but to get my desktop managed, i won`t want to tinker with complicated & cryptic console hacking.
But i have to admit, that i haven`t tried any modern distribution for that recently.
As far as people told me, at least to alter the screen resolution does not requires configfile hacking anymore

May be i should try one of those modern distribution like Unbuntu as second installation.

With certain monitors/video cards, I still need to edit xorg.conf with Ubuntu 7.04. I really wish this would stop... They need to just list all resolutions the card supports, and forget about checking the DDC on the monitor. The programmers need to realize that almost every monitor out there these days can do at least 1024x768x75Hz. I have a couple Dell Poweredge 300 systems that are stuck at 800x600 with a 17" monitor unless I edit xorg.conf

The worst thing is, on those same systems, When you start the install process, you can't see the bottom of the installation windows. In order to hit "OK" you have to use the enter key.

[stretch0069]

Re: Open source wins again...

I think it is like smoking, MS make s you addictive and lazy

proverbial nail on head.......

its indicative of our entire society.....

ok.......relax Will.....i'm going to get another beer......



I'd love to switch completely to Linux and maybe I can do that if all my PCs have enough horsepower to run emulators........

[willawake]

Re: Open source wins again...

i received an invoice from someone as an access snapshot file. wtf wft. I actually did not want to admit i could not read the file so i installed access snapshot viewer........

so many goddamn useless closed formats these days (mostly from msft)

talking about open source though, i am getting pretty annoyed with the memory leaks in firefox and thunderbird. i hope they fix those soon. they promised for firefox 3. I also hate the file downloading feature of firefox, why does it have to freeze the browser for a few seconds until the file is ready?

still i use it though. when i am doing research at work it involves having lots of windows open, then i need to load pdf and office files from the web. occasionally a file download fuck everything with the browser not responding and then i am lost.

[gonzo0815]

Re: Open source wins again...

Yes Willa, i can remember when Firebird was lightweight, fast and has not required 250Mb ram for may be thirty tabs.
Not forget the big as browser tab session handling scheme, where you could safe complete sessions as bookmark.
But haven´t we all seen this with any IE alternative? i think it is something off the nature of web browser, that they are getting bloated off with useless features.
Any way, still like it and i will probably not switch over soon.

[willawake]

Re: Open source wins again...

Office 2007 has changed the file formats, so older versions of Office cannot read the files.

bleh we get some docx format today.
the future is bleak

[toastygoodness]

Re: Open source wins again...

they can read it, just download the compatibility filter. i dislike firefox. i actually like ie7, but otherwise all i'd use is opera.

[PeteS in CA]

Re: Open source wins again...

I've used Firefox for a year and a half, maybe two years; IE7 for two or three months. At best, my response to IE7 is, "Why"? I've had few (possibly zero) problems with Firefox rendering pages since the release, over a year ago IIRC, of 1.5. Two sites I visit frequently have had problems with IE7. One has installed a patch to cover IE7's bug; the other hasn't yet. IE7 has some nice new features that I find useful . . . features that have been available since the release of Firefox 2.0 (a year ago?). I really have no reason to use IE7 when I have a choice.

[starfury1]

Re: Open source wins again...

talking about open source though, i am getting pretty annoyed with the memory leaks in firefox and thunderbird. i hope they fix those soon. they promised for firefox 3. I also hate the file downloading feature of firefox, why does it have to freeze the browser for a few seconds until the file is ready?

still i use it though. when i am doing research at work it involves having lots of windows open, then i need to load pdf and office files from the web. occasionally a file download fuck everything with the browser not responding and then i am lost.

yeah know the feeling will, I find it more so with PDF's
So I try to DL them rather then have them open in a window
there is a alpha or is beta...FF3 "Minefield"


[quote]I think it is like smoking, MS make s you addictive and lazy [quote]

Gonzo thats worthy of being a tag I just might use it LOL

I think its true too the proprietary things with multimedia etc is what stuffs things up, once it becomes a bit of a standard everyone is stuck with it and open source programmers are somewhat stuffed..like the DVD player issue
sure there are ways around it but your average windows user isn't going to go looking for it for linux

So yeah roll on a spoon fed OS open source like windows (like TC said)
(then you come up with something like "lindows" as a name and get your arse sued, they seems to have plenty of money to sue each others arses and treat there customers like criminals)

Not that I am any Linux guru had a play with RedHat yellow Dog and of Ubunti

I have really got to have a look at linux again and setup for it...lazy thats all
like Gonzo said

If I had some important doc to open and was hampered by some possible mal functioning copy protection scheme Id be damm pissed too.

In fact if this was the case I'd bill M$ for the time
(yeah I know they probably wouldn't pay it but then again there was a dude here who billed a bank for "time lost" while in a queue and they paid up)

maybe if everybody billed M$ and companies like them for lost production time for issues relating to copy protection schemes they might have to have a rethink...esp if you attach a note saying you going to install Linux and pay for your staff to be trained in it LOL.

issue them a "cease and decisit" or your going else where with your business software needs.

I am sue there are a lot of companies that would just love the idea of being able to put another box together for a new staff member without having to screw around with software licensing agreements and shit like that to stay legal (and yeah M$ answer is rent the software on a per year basis and your totally lock into to our security system)


yeah not going to happen but an interesting thought if it did.

Cheers

[willawake]

Re: Open source wins again...

yeah know the feeling will, I find it more so with PDF's
So I try to DL them rather then have them open in a window

hehe my work is published daily via pdf. like 74 pages yacht survey reports with text, photographs, document scans. we have learnt how to mash it all down to a reasonable size. but adobe should look into the scrolling issue. also i refer to a lot of technical documents in pdf from the web, very annoying while it is loading or if it just stalled. in short pdf is a major part of our business and it sucks. i would complain but you know i did not buy that software

[bgavin]

Re: Open source wins again...

His MS Excel kept asking for the CD (which he could not find of course) and he couldn't get it to work otherwise.

This is what happens when either Windows or Office is installed from the CD, rather than installed from a permanent directory on the disk.

I create drv:\Install\Office2003 then copy all the CD files to this directory. Once copied, I run the installer from there. This registers the source path correctly, so one never has to dig up the CD again.

The easy way to check if the I386 is correctly registered is by running SFC /SCANNOW. This will crap out if the registry settings are wrong.

[willawake]

Re: Open source wins again...

By 2009, all computers in Russian schools are to be run on Linux - which means they will not have to pay to use licensed software, such as Microsoft's Windows. full article

thats the way to do it.

but geez i wonder how many of those kids will become spammers

[acstech]

Re: Open source wins again...

The Russian students will become more intelligent, no doubt about that.

[gonzo0815]

Re: Open source wins again...

IMHO they already are ;-)