MS Office for Linux?

[derek at cerberus.ne.mediaone.net (Derek Martin)]

Today, Jerry Callen gleaned this insight:

> I'm solidly in that group. It may drive me crazy from time to time, but
> the Office suite generally does what I want it to do, and (big point) I
> already know how to use it. Sure, I use emacs for text editing, but text
> editing is not word processing, nor is it presentation preparation, or
> building spreadsheets. I love the stability of Unix. I hate the instability
> of Windoze. I like (not love...) Office. What's a mother to do?

So, you're saying that if there were a complete replacement, which didn't
crash nearly as often as Office, which ran on an OS that doesn't crash
nearly as often as Windows, and reads and writes Office documents with,
say, 99% compatibility, you'd still use Office? Even though the interface
might be a little different, it seems like under the circumstances, it
would well be worth your time to learn the new interface, which I would
imagine wouldn't really take that long for an experienced Office suite
user.  The increase in productivity would seem to outweigh the few extra
hours it would take you to familiarize yourself with the new interface.

This is from my own experience, but I've seen people lose whole days worth
of work in office because either it or the OS crashed, and they didn't
save religiously like they should on that platform.

> > And since all of business has decided to standardize on MS Office,
> > the sensible choice (among other penalties) is for Microsoft to open up
> > the definitions of their file formats so that all software companies
> > and OSS developers can write software that can manipulate these documents.
> 
> That would be a start. But it doesn't really address the issue before the
> courts, which is about Microsoft's OPERATING SYSTEM monopoly. What *I*

Maybe not, but I think it does... Most of the people I've met who are
experienced computer users, who have used Linux and like it, but still
cling to MS, do so specifically because of Office.  There needs to be a
complete replacement for MS Office on Linux for which the administrator
can throw a couple of icons on the desktop (or the install does it for
them) so the users can launch it without doing much of anything before
Linux can gain widespread acceptance on the desktop.  I truly believe that
this, plus people's natural resistance to change, are all that stands in
the way of widespread acceptance of Linux as a desktop platform.

My recent experience at my new job has elucidated some things for me. The
average user doesn't want to start programs from the Unix command line.  
Typically they have barely heard of Unix, and probably have only because
of the recent popularity of Linux.  They don't know how to navigate a Unix
filesystem, and they want a familiar, point-and-click interface.  They
don't have the desire, or the time, to learn Unix and its intricacies. It
gets in the way of their productivity. If you can make it so their
favorite applications start with a click of the mouse, I think you can get
buy-in.

I'd estimate that for 80% of typical users, the applications they need to
run are e-mail software, and Office software.  Well we've already got a
glut of e-mail software on Linux, though Netscape is the only offering
with a truly familiar point and click interface.  We don't, however, have
a _GOOD_ replacement for office.  I define this as an office product that
reads, writes, and displays Office documents with a high degree of
compatibility, and has an easy point-and-click interface.  I'm defining it
that way because that's how my users define it, and for those who are
reluctant to switch to Linux, that is precisely the reason.


> want is for Microsoft to be forced to provide sufficient detail about the
> Windows API to enable WINE to *really* run Windows shrink-wrap software.
> Then I can run Office, or Lotus SmartSuite, or Quicken, or *anything*
> that doesn't try to get cute with the hardware (but, personally, I don't
> care about games).

This would also be most welcome.  I'd still be concerned about the
stability of many of the apps being run this way, but it would definitely
help.

-- 
PGP/GPG Public key at http://cerberus.ne.mediaone.net/~derek/pubkey.txt
------------------------------------------------------
Derek D. Martin      |  Unix/Linux Geek
derekm at mediaone.net  |  derek at cerberus.ne.mediaone.net
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