Re: [OSS] Which 1st?: FLOSS End-User-Apps or "LAMPS" Promotion (00) - was Re Open Office...

At 19:46 15.02.2003 +0000, you wrote:
-------------------------
>Stefan,
>
>I'm trying to get second opinions on the state of Viet-localization
>of the end-user applications you mentioned.
>
>Otherwise, you sort of chopped and mixed my previous mail so much i
>can barely recognize it myself. I found myself writing several
>separate replies, but ran out of time.

Andy,
the purpose is to cut unnecessary parts in order to prevent mails getting
bigger and bigger. That is list etiquette, and I actually fail very often
to cut. See e.g. RMS: he includes only the one or two original sentences to
which he is responding to. Everything else gets cut.

OK, I will reply to your points without dissecting your post ;)

First, I never said, that any PubSW can match the proprietary ones
(Windows, Apple OS) for the desktop right now. The last time I tried it, I
had a fairly new MotherBoard, and we tried for some days to get all the
display, sound, etc. things working. In the end we gave it up. I still kept
the installation and occasionally booted it. Especially my daughter liked
the games there. When I bought my last notebook I even didn't try to
switch. I intend however to try it in the near future again with a
second-hand PC, just to see how it works now.

One of the reasons why I have to stick to Windows, is that I have to use
special SW from Siemens for the job. And this SW is only available for Windows.

I do run a Linux router box (which includes a name server, and a small
webserver). My hosts abroad run on FreeBSD, and I have one FreeBSD box in
my LAN for development purposes (Apache, Perl, PHP, mySQL, ...). My
mailserver is Windows, since there is no mailserver for a PubSW OS, which
would provide the requested features.

So far to the OS.
My point was about Public SW end-user programs.
The main SW in question is obviously OpenOffice. Yes, Impress cannot match
PowerPoint, but I also said, that average users won't need it anyway. The
main apps will be Writer (vs. MS Word) and Calc (vs. MS Excel).

I am still trying them, right now version 1.0.2. Experiences so far:
1) Calc does not print the same like Excel: I have some sheets which I use
to print labels for various purposes. The cells are fine-tuned to print to
the mm exactly so that the labels fit. When I open those sheets in Calc,
they print with a bit different size, so I would have to re-tune the cells.
2) I succeeded yesterday to crash Calc with a fairly common operation.
3) Some keyboard shortcuts (like ctrl D for "fill down", ctrl R for "fill
right"), as well as some mouse shortcuts (like pulling cells around with
the mouse) don't work the same way - or not at all (did not try to look to
much yet).
I did not try Writer very much.
Though still not a match, until now it looks at least usable. Means: If I
would have to pay for MS Office, then I would switch to OpenOffice. Means:
IMO at present, OpenOffice is already a suitable deterrent not to enforce
copyright laws, and it would even be "stronger", if a Vietnamese version
would be available. Over the time, OpenOffice will hopefully be a full
replacement, and then we should have the Vietnamese version anyway. Why not
start now, and then later have to translate only the deltas?

With regard to Infrastructure, I agree with you, that there is work to be
done. It just will take more time, more resources, etc. To look to get
quickly a Vietnamese OpenOffice for Windows out does not mean not to look
about PublicSW for Infrastructure (servers etc.).

Best,
Stefan

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