On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 1:03 AM, Sachin Gopalakrishnan <mai...@sachingopal.com> wrote: >> There can never be a replacement for the crap that is M$office. Even a >> brainless moron cant write such crap. > > >> There are at least two SUPERIOR alternatives Openoffice and Koffice.
I'm not sure who said that but whoever said this is truly a moron big time... Oooh did I offend anybody? :) This thread is an example of how retarded certain discussions can be especially if people just go around shooting off their mouths without having a balanced opinion about the world around them. Let me just cut to the chase and before reading my reply I'm putting in a disclaimer for everybody. I'm not a Microsoft supporter nor a hater. I'm a Linux enthusiast and a supporter of the Open Source movement / philosophy but I do not like when people go overboard without rationally explaining their statements. > I use ubuntu 8.04 as my desktop at home but i need excel at my workplace on > my laptop. > I have tried using OO (not tried K Office) but the spreadsheet tool just > does not seem to work well enough especially after i have used excel, OO > seems so dated and clunky in contrast. I must admit i have not tried the > latest version though. OpenOffice 3 is the latest version. Its certainly an improvement but not a solution to your problem. I'll save you some effort but sure do try it out. > There is no real Autocad replacement, even if there are like BRL-CAD, > Varicad etc we do not get > candidates for them. We tried Virtualbox. did not work very well, especially > cumbersome > when it came to sharing files on a network using Samba. Let me just stop you here. VirtualBox is not the only player on the block. But it is one of the best now and the easiest too. Try VirtualBox 2.1 and you'll be surprised. Some features you'll be very interested in are: 1. One click host networking setup. ( Means your virtual machine is virtually a real machine on your network ;) ). It'll obtain an IP from the DHCP server like a real machine and you can run servers and outside machines can connect to them. This works on Linux too. 2. Experimental OpenGL support. This is cool. Now most graphic intensive programs work far better in the virtual machine then they used to before. Virtualized graphics acceleration is slowly becoming a reality. But hold on, they've not implemented DirectX APIs which means some apps which dont offer OpenGL versions can't take advantage of this enhancement. You'll have to check with the application's specs to see how well it runs. Many people can run Windows games now in a virtual machine ( and VirtualBox isn't the first one to have made this a reality ). Due to 1 & 2, you'll find a Virtual machine inside VirtualBox is able to inter operate far better with your real world infrastructure. Just a word of caution. This is a bleeding edge release and you ought to purchase their license since you're doing this in an office setup. You can try it for free under the PUEL. > I know there are other linux options for virtualization available like > parallels and vmware but we are not > in a position to experiment as of now especially after virtualbox. Yeah right. Parallels and Linux. ROTFLMAO :) > We use an MS Access based system (third party )for excise, i haven't come > across any package in linux as a replacement though am sure one could be > built. All hail the mighty VirtualBox OR WINE. Ever heard of it buddy? Did anybody point you to it? Nah... everyones busy just shooting off smart ass remarks :) WINE has reached v1 release. Check it out. With the latest release I was able to install Microsoft Office suite ( 2007 or whatever the heck it is ) on Linux. It works like a charm. Heck I installed CS and it works far better than the native Windows install :) -- Regards, Dinesh A. Joshi -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
