On Wed, 2002-08-21 at 12:21, Nick Rout wrote: > > Here here, it PISSES me off that Linux isn't really taken seriously on > > the desktop as I happily use it everyday. > > > The answer is, IMHO, twofold. > > 1. legacy business data - the main one being ms word documents. Do not > try and sell me linux or open source word processors that will open > complex word documents 100% correct every time. It does not happen. I > have 171MB legacy word docs that I may want to use at any time,thats > right goddamn now, not once I have fiddled around for twenty minutes > resetting stuff or finding where the headers & footers & para numbereing went.
It might be worth trying to avoid using MS Word then. It has this horrible habit of printing out documents differently on different printers, and is very poor at loading documents which may have become partially corrupted. Plus the software does different things from one version to the next, and is very bad at managing indexes. > 2 closely allied, training. The average secretary/wp operator etc is not > as adept at change as a geek who likes to fiddle and is prepared to play > with some software for hours playing with the features, finding how it > works etc. I don't have time to train my secretary on openoffice or > retrain her on word perfect (she probably last used 5.1). Put most > office workers in fronnt of a new program and they spin out. Put new staff in front of OpenOffice, and reserve MS Word for those who learned menu navigation by rote. > Now theres a lot happening to the desktop and its better every day. But > Neal's article was about what is REALLY happening in business out there > NOW. What is really happening in businesses is services - mail, file, > print, database. It is a positive spin for linux so I wonder why it is > getting bashed?? > > P.S If I was setting up my own business now I probably would go for > star/open office on linux, but now its too hard to change. This'll become easier when pre-installed Linux PCs become readily available. Readers may wish to pop down to their local small computer store and offer to earn beer money installing Linux for them :) Vik :v)
