Re: Office software - and printers
On Tue, Dec 12, 2000 at 02:45:50PM -0500, urbanyon wrote: 2) Are there any printers recommended for use with Debian? Checkout http://www.linuxprinting.org Nico - It has been said that there are only two businesses that refer to customers as users: illegal drug trade and the computer industry. - Nico De Ranter Sony Service Center (SDCE/NEE-B) Sint Stevens Woluwestraat 55 (Rue de Woluwe-Saint-Etienne) 1130 Brussel (Bruxelles), Belgium, Europe, Earth Telephone: +32 2 724 86 41 Telefax: +32 2 726 26 86 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Office software - and printers
not sure about printers, but star office (now owned by sun) is a very full-featured and free office suite. check it out here: www.sun.com/staroffice On Sun, 10 Dec 2000, Tom Huckstep 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? 2) Are there any printers recommended for use with Debian? Tom -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Office software - and printers
kmself@ix.netcom.com writes: [snip some advice] 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. I think this is just one half of the truth. I hate these dinosaurs too, favourite example Netscape Communicator. But NscComm and M$ software in general show, average users want frames. It must look familiar, quality is no criterium to them. They see what the SW does, and this is obviously very persuading because they associate this with user-friendlyness. [snip some vim note] I won't tell you what I said when me and Vi(m) first met and I just wanted to enter text... Note from my side: I promised never to use qutotation marks again ;) Andre
Office software - and printers
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? 2) Are there any printers recommended for use with Debian? Tom
Re: Office software - and printers
On Sun, Dec 10, 2000 at 10:31:10AM +, Tom Huckstep wrote: Hi, 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. hm, the very nice looking depends on the Windowmanager and the toolkits used to build the enviroment. 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, I prefer KDE 2. 1) What office software is available (preferably free, but non-free is fine) for Debian? I use Star Office 5.2 from SUN cause I know it since the 2.0 Windos 3.1 Version. The Code is GPL'ed at www.openoffice.org Another option is KOffice or Abi Word. 2) Are there any printers recommended for use with Debian? That's not a problem of a distribution. read www.linuxprinting.org and find out more. Most Laser Printers are well supported. CU, Sven -- Sven Hoexter - Germany - Leverkusen e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] One Unix to rule them all, One Resolver to find them, One IP to bring them all and in the zone to bind them
Re: Office software - and printers
Tom Huckstep [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: 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. I guess this means they're (micro)soft-wired. The icewm window manager is always worth a look; IMHO you don't need the Gnome panel... TkDesk is fine too. 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? StarOffice 5.2; SIAG Office (Applix Ware, WP Office. I wouldn't recommend WP!) ... and probably many more 2) Are there any printers recommended for use with Debian? Tom A PostScript laser printer with a paper tray and at least 6 MB RAM (assuming 600 dpi). Check out www.linuxprinting.org Andre
Re: Office software - and printers
1) What office software is available (preferably free, but non-free is fine) for Debian? Both GNOME and KDE have office suites available for them. However, though it's not a Debian package, my favorite is StarOffice. StarOffice is now GPL and though it's a pig for resources, I've found it quite easy for typical secretaries and newbies to use/learn. 2) Are there any printers recommended for use with Debian? Most printers work fine with Debian. Make sure you install the magicfilter package (and its various dependent packages) and then run its magicfilterconfig command. -- Regards,| Need some help with Debian GNU/Linux? . | Randy | Look no further than http://debianhelp.org ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) |
Re: Office software - and printers
on Sun, Dec 10, 2000 at 10:31:10AM +, Tom Huckstep ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) 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 pgp6WhertMwBY.pgp Description: PGP signature
