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From: "Hilton Travis" <QuarkAudioVisual at email.com>
To: <general at lists.humbug.org.au>
Subject: RE: [H-GEN] Linux on the Desktop
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 09:11:05 +1000
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-general at lists.humbug.org.au 
> [mailto:owner-general at lists.humbug.org.au] On Behalf Of Frank Brand
> 
> 
> While my comments on StarOffice may have been seen as a 
> negative, I actually think StarOffice is a great app and 
> could satisfy most MS Office users as long as their documents 
> were not complex...eg embedded VBA macros or embedded Excel 
> spreadsheets etc. (and that probably accounts for about 75% 
> of users). Personally, I don't mind the StarOffice interface 
> either and, although it has been criticised and was changed 
> for OpenOffice 6, I did not see it as a majour problem. Ther 
> sluggishness of StarOffice...especially at start-up seemed 
> more of a bother for people used to getting quicker response 
> from MS Office... I suppose thats Java for you.
> 
> Anyone here have reports on OpenOffice 6?

I have previously used and recommended Star Office 5.2 to a number of
clients, many of whom are still using it today - way cheaper than
constant MS Office updates, especially considering their new "Buy an
annual license, or pay full price" policy.

Unfortunately, I have downloaded Star Office 6.0 Beta and am
underwhelmed with it.  Very underwhelmed.  It has difficulties opening a
lot of my MS Word documents, cannot correctly display a lot of
PowerPoint presentations I have here, does not handle the scroll wheel
on the mouse and it has a number of "windows" that cannot be docked to
the menu/toolbars.

Aside from this it is extremely sluggish when loading.

Aside from these issues, there are a lot of problems when saving
Microsoft-formated documents, especially PowerPoint files.

And that is just on Windows computers.  And fast-ish ones at that...

And for the killer?  SO6 drops the desktop, browser, mail client, news
client, frames support in its html editor, and the scheduler/PIM support
that it had in SO 5.2

Now, as Star Office is a key factor in people accepting Linux on the
desktop - well, what OTHER office suite is out there for Linux - then
Sun appears to be kneecapping this push.  This is a real shame.
Especially considering the number of organizations that run
Windows/Linux machines.  With the existing incompatibilities, and the
appaling removal of key functionality from SO6 (especially the
Schedule/PIM app), then I really don't see how I can recommend it to my
clients.  They'll be staying with SO 5.2 methinks, however I'll give
them the option.

It is a shame.  A real shame.  But if Sun/OpenOffice intends to pare
Star Office down to just a word processor (metaphorically) then I think
they will lose the opportunity they had created with SO 5.1 and SO5.2.

Regards,
Hilton Travis


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