Chad Smith wrote:
On 10/25/05, Robin Laing <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Email = Thunderbird or Mozilla or ....
Can I send an email directly through Writer with those programs? Does my
spell-check dictionary syncronize with those programs?
I have no use for a publisher, templates or macros that I don't create.
Good for you! I have no use for a Vector Graphics program, so can we remove
Draw from the codebase? Just because *you* don't need it, doesn't mean it's
not needed. Desktop Publishing fills a huge need. Ask Adobe how many people
need desktop publishing, or Microsoft, or Scribus....
Clipart is all over the web and most are free. I can legally purchase
an awful lot of clipart for the price of Office. Heck with draw or
GIMP I can create my own clipart.
I'm glad you're so talented! I, however, can't create my own clip art. And
as far as finding "free" clip art online - that's a huge hassel, and you're
never sure if what you get can legally be used (copyright laws and such). If
OOo came with a decent amount of public domain clip art, or if there was a
separate OOo Clipart download, all GPL or pd or whatever, that would
suffice. And the Open Clip Art Library doesn't work with OOo (since OOo has
no SVG import), so that's no help.
None of that helps with templates. And since all the old depositatories of
OOo Templates (like OOoExtras, etc.) are (a) abandoned (b) really old (c)
hard to find, unless you've been with the project for over a year and (d)
based on the now obsolete OpenOffice Format.... We need some new stuff.
Heck, most of the old website's domainnames are now ad-sites!
If you need the extra features of a commercial product, purchase
StarOffice and still save money.
StarOffice still doesn't include email. StarOffice still doesn't have a DTP.
StarOffice still doesn't run on Mac.
-Chad Smith
What is great for one person is bad for another.
I don't know if your points are valid. I have have not used Outlook
since 2001 when I dumped Windows. Of course Microsoft doesn't make a
native version of Outlook for Linux.
I have three or four different email programs on my computer now and I
still use Mozilla after giving Thunderbird a try.
I also don't want a single program to do it all. If I did I would get
a Windows machine and go bankrupt getting all the software. For what
it is worth, on Fedora Core 4, I can omit draw if I want to.
As for spell checker, I don't need them to be integrated. I prefer
different spell checkers for different applications as I will allow
different rules to exist between what I would write in writer to that
I would in email. It is nice. If I had to use one dictionary, I
would prefer to use StarDict as it provides more features that I like.
I have desktop publishing programs on my computer that I have tried
but not what I needed.
I like that you mention Mac. I have seen how well Word on Mac works
with Word for Windows and it wasn't nice. OOo came to save the day on
Linux. Now OOo has supplemented Word on both the Mac and Windows
machines for those times that Word won't do what is needed or supposed
to. At least with OOo documents from a Mac, I know that I can open
them without headaches on the Linux machine. I cannot say that for
Word documents. Heck, I cannot even say that for Word documents
between Windows 2000 and XP.
I have a need for drafting software but that isn't included in OOo
either. Should I demand that it be included and OOo isn't a great
product? Where do I find the drafting software in MS Office XP? As
that goes, where is the desktop publishing software in MS Office? You
mention the need for other applications to supplement MS Office. What
is the difference between this and using OpenOffice as well as
secondary applications. As that goes, Outlook is not part of Office,
it is a secondary program as you can install Office without Outlook.
And again, why doesn't Office integrate with Thunderbird or Mozilla
email?
I guess from what you are saying. If I purchase Office 12 when it
comes out it will include all of the tools that I would ever need if I
ever planned on doing anything. Of course when I save my Office 12
documents in their native format, all those that don't have Office 12
won't be able to open it. Spend more money on the upgrades boys. It
may be great to get rid of the rest of Microsofts competition with an
integrated desktop publishing, cad, spelling, graphics editor,
presentation creator, ....
No one package is a complete tool. I have different needs than you or
my wife or the person across the hall from me that screams every time
MS Word decides to reformat the document that he has just spent 3
hours formatting and won't undo but OOo lets him fix it in a few minutes.
As for a grammor checker. I used one back in the Wordperfect days and
I will tell you that it was more of a problem than help.
In a free world, you have choices. Mine and many others (more around
word almost daily) are choosing OOo over MS Office as it works better.
I would like certain features from Perfect Office in either Word and
if Corel still made Perfect Office for Linux, I would purchase it over
StarOffice. That is if I was going to purchase any software.
If you are going to compare Office Suites, then do a valid comparison.
Don't talk about external programs that are "not" part of the suite
in defending your preferred suite. I don't expect OpenOffice to be
the exact same as MS Office. In fact in my experience it is much
better for what I do. With one added macro, it is almost perfect for me.
In the end, for me,
MS Office = empty pockets,
OOo = lots of beer. :)
--
Robin Laing
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