post? DH <<
Thanks for the tip. I have been using WordPerfect for writing posts off line. I'll try WordPad.
I don't use any MS product except what I have to (Wind 80). I don't like Bill Gates, not because he is rich but because I think he is a no-good rat.
I have the same opinion of Steve Jobs. That's one reason I switched from a Macintosh to a PC. The other reason I switched was that I got a funny look when I told people I was a Macintosh man.
On Wed, 15 Mar 2000 05:08:44 -0800, Wyde Wing wrote:
If you'd like to avoid MS products try out Star Office. It's a clone of M$ Office and it's available for free from Sun Microsystems. Sun and M$ have been at odds for a long time. Sun computers currently run Solaris which is a BSD based operating system related to Unix and Linux.
Star office is about 65MB to download. There are versions than run on Windows, Linux, Solaris, and OS/2. It can use M$ files, including Word, Excel etc.
If you want to get away from M$ even more, Red Hat 6.2 (Linux) is about $30 and runs with no M$ components. It also comes with a free copy of all versions of Star. You can dual boot a computer with Windows and Linux while you learn Linux.
I run Windows most of the time, but I an learning Linux as well.
--Larry
Disclaimer: I am an MCSE , but my opinions don't reflect the opinions of Bill Gates, Microsoft or sane people.
you learn Linux. LF <<
Red Hat sounds interesting. Does Star Office include a comprehensive word processing program, like MS Word and Corel WordPerfect ?
I like a word processing program with lots of capabilities. WordPerfect has that but it is also a bit buggy and is not always as intuitive as MS Word. I wish Corel would debug WordPerfect.
On Thu, 16 Mar 2000 12:22:39 -0800, Wyde Wing wrote:
I've been using Word Perfect for several years and it does have some rather odd "features", like moving everything around for no apparent reason.
Star Office has an MS Word clone that can open existing Word Docs and save in Word format. I'm running it under Windows and Red Hat and it's almost identical under both. It really helps with getting used to Linux.
Depending on your connection speed, you can download it (~67MB) or I believe they'll send it on CD for a few dollars. It at www.sun.com . There's a link to the download page right at the top. So far there are over 1.8 million downloads. Plus I was told they were handing out free CDs like crazy at Comdex.
--Larry
Docs and save in Word format. I'm running it under Windows and Red Hat and it's almost identical under both. It really helps with getting used to Linux. LF <<
OK. I'm going in to Fry's tomorrow (Sat.) to buy a bare bones 450 MHz computer they advertised. It costs a mere $219, and that includes a 1-year ($100) subscription to CompuServe.
The computer comes with Linux, so Star will be included. The buyer installs the CPU chip (AMD K6-2), memory chips, and hard drive. I'll buy the CPU chip and install the memory chips and hard drive from my old 200 MHz computer. I hope the memory chips will be fast enough.
My old computer doesn't work anyway. Won't boot up. So rather than pay $70 minimum to have it fixed I'll buy the bare bones computer with Linux and Star Office.
On Fri, 17 Mar 2000 17:17:21 -0800, Wyde Wing wrote:
Once you've got that system, you can also try BeOS. I'm a bit of a BeOS advocate. Having been a long user of Windows, I tried Linux to find that I was unprepared for all the configurations for it. BeOS has the stability of Linux, but better performance in general. Each have their uses, but I find BeOS much easier to use than Linux. A little sexier, too :)
BeOS has a productive package as well. It's called Gobe Productive. It also opens MS files.
BeOS will be free for download March 28, however unlike the operating system, Gobe Productive sells for $99 I think. Still far more reasonable than Office. It's not free, but then again Im a true believer that you get what you pay for, and in this case, I guess technical support is what is offered. Thats how RedHat makes money, now that they've gone commercial.