Posted on 08/28/2015 6:41:30 AM PDT by ShadowAce
Of course, now it’s more like the fifth or sixth vote while I was editing the post. :-/
The problem with Linux is it prides itself on being geeky. Microsoft sells because of a more user friendly look and terminology and massive advertising.
Linux Mint as an example is better then Microsoft (IMHO) but until Linux has an Office program that works well with others using Microsoft Office and can also support the Windows programs out there easily they will still be in the basement.
For me the documentation is pretty good as seen here: http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php
If only the major pc suppliers would switch or are they blocked?
#8 Windows and OS X are malware, claims Richard Stallman
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/25/stallman_windows_and_mac_are_malware/
Good to hear from you Johnny.
One word, Stability.
Stallman is a riot. It's good of him to hold down the loony-left end of the techno-political spectrum.
Of course, strictly speaking, he's absolutely correct about the OSes, and the smart TVs and all that. What he says -- insofar as he's describing the actual devices and software -- is essentially accurate.
OTOH, his prescriptions for what to do about it are nonsense in a practical, real world.
Idealism comes at a steep price. The rest of us gotta get stuff done and we accept the flaws of our tools.
He deserves our thanks for the great technical work he's done for many decades.
But I wish he would STFU about the politics.
I use LibreOffice, and I've never had a problem opening, writing, and sharing MS Office files with Office users. Supposedly incompatibilities exist, but in however many years of everyday use, I've never encountered a problem.
In fact, at my previous job I used LibreOffice to create the MS Office templates for standard company documents (letterhead, invoices, etc.) because it was far easier to create consistent layouts. (By contrast, Excel still employed some weird, subjective column-width calculation at the time that involved numbers of characters in the default font).
Office can now read and save to OpenOffice/LibreOffice's file formats, which means Microsoft expects that a good number of their users have to share documents with OO/LO users.
Mint or Ubuntu I guess
Using WINE and PlayOnLinux allows a some Windows programs to be used on Linux
These days, it's a no-brainer. If you need a webserver, you install a LAMP stack. Whenever a group asks to install something on IIS, we know there are going to be issues and headaches that you just don't have to deal with in the Linux world, because it generally means you have an app from a vendor that is married to microsoft in a faggy kind of way.
Nice article. I’ve seen quite a few people save their XP machines with a Linux OS distro. Researching what distro fits your hardware makeup of your computer is the first thing I do. I’ve got mine down to Ubuntu first, then ZorinOS and Mint. For lighter hardware computers, Zorin Lite, Lubuntu, and Peppermint.
I’ve been using Linux OS’s for about 5 years now and really not too many problems. For everyday computing, I can do just about anything in Linux that I could do in MS Windows. I dual-boot Linux and Windows on one machine but I rarely have to use the Windows side of things.
CGato
As long as DistroWatch exists Linux will continue to be a Back Room / Infrastructure tool and a Hobbyist desktop.
Nothing wrong with that of course.
Every time I see your handle on a new post, it makes me happy to know you’re still with us.
I hope to stay happy for this for a long time to come.
I guess it will come done to how the Word or Excel files were formatted. The simpler the better. I got my copy of Office 2013 for about $30 as the company I worked at qualified me for the big discount. I tried WordPerfect http://www.wordperfect.com/us/ but creating a Word doc with a table as an example did not open with the table in the same position or size in Word 2013.
Now that the Mate desktop runs on Ubuntu as well as Mint, I prefer the latest Ubuntu.
I know I'll get chided for this but I actually like Ubuntu. (Using it right now as I write this post...)
Two responses:
1. Libre Office.
2. WINE.
I just downloaded LibreOffice and tried it out. I had used OpenOffice before and that is where there were problems.
I created a couple of tables and some text of different fonts and size as a Word 2003 .doc and Word 2013 .docx file and it opens in Word 2013 looking like it does in LibreOffice. I made changes in Word and saved then opened it in LibreOffice. It looked the same as in Word.
So for Word I would defiantly use LibreOffice as Word can be a pain.... The program seemed more responsive too.
Why Microsoft Word must Die
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/10/why-microsoft-word-must-die.html
I printed the docx one from both programs and they look identical so I am sold on LibreOffice. I also like the small print box that comes up in front of the page instead of Words way of completely taking you out of the screen so you lose focus.
I also like when you use the LibreOffice shortcut it shows your documents as thumbnails plus has links to all the other Office programs.
I do not use Excel much so others would have to post about the Calc Spreadsheet vs Excel version.
I see LibreOffice needs an email program. (I use Thunderbird email program)
Also check out this link for extensions and templates for LibreOffice: http://extensions.libreoffice.org
Linux all day every day for me. If I need a windoze app it’s on a VM of one sort or another. Libreoffice is fine for simple things but for industry use MS apps are the gold standard and then I use a VM and life is good.
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