> I think there will be a big market for this kind of > work soon, as Linux gains more market share. > Specifically, I think OpenOffice is the platform to > use to port MS-Office/VBA type of apps. Did you know > OpenOffice uses VB-like syntax for its macro > programming language? And the latest version of > OpenOffice includes an MS Access-like application for > quick database development. > > One big barrier however is porting all those 3rd party > components for VB over to Linux. That's who Microsoft > catered to when they put so much effort into > development tools. They knew that enabling component > makers would give em lock in.
A friend of mine is doing contract work for a state agency. They had been writing a VB.Net application that used Office Automation to build several-gigabyte, several hundred page Word documents, pulling data from several sources including Oracle databases. Then the agency decided that it needed to standardize on Linux servers, so now he's porting all this to Linux using the OpenOffice APIs. So far, he's been able to reproduce all of the functionality of the .Net app, but under Linux with Oracle, Java, and OpenOffice.
