Re: Suggestions?

[Jeff Licquia <jeff@luci.org>]

Kurtis Schlimme wrote:

>         I'm looking for some suggestions as to what I should put on/how off to
> people in my CMP121 class (its a beginner course to the office suite of
> tools) linux, and the software with it.  I'm aiming to present a fairly
> short demonstration of linux and the apps someone would use in a business
> or just as a replacement to the office '97 suite.  Now I have my box that
> ill be lugging in (not the one with the booting problem I asked about
> before 8)  ),  and I have about a week to get anything installed/ready for
> use so basically what should I get in terms of office suites
> (applixware/staroffice/etc..) and which of these would have a better
> ability to read say, excel or word documents we have already made in class?
>
>         Sorry for the somewhat ambiguous question, but I don't want to overwhelm
> them and have them just politely nod and go "uh huh looks good can we sit
> down now?".  I just want to show them linux's potential so when they leave
> the class they can at least recognize linux as a free viable alternative to
> microsoft products.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated  8)

I use Applix in my office, mostly because of compatibility problems with StarOffice
and Red Hat (which have reportedly been fixed).  I'd suggest looking at StarOffice
first, mostly because of the "free for personal use" license (they may also have an
education exemption).  Applix is $99.  If it comes out in time, you might also want
to demo WordPerfect 8 for Linux (also free for personal use).  That will eventually
be the cornerstone of Corel Office for Linux, which will include Quattro,
CorelDraw, Paradox, etc.

Also, don't forget the free suites.  AbiSource (www.abisource.com, if I remember
correctly) is coming out with a free office suite.  Better yet, they're a Central
Illinois (Champaign area) company.  I don't know how usable it is, however.

The GNOME and KDE teams are both coming out with office suites as well.  Check
their sites (www.gnome.org and www.kde.org, respectively) for more info.  My
understanding is that both teams are at about the same place in terms of the
usability of each suite; both are considered to be still in development.  It's my
understanding that the KDE document system (KLyX) is ahead of GNOME's (gwp), but
GNOME's spreadsheet (gnumeric) is a little ahead of KDE's (KSpread).  YMMV, as
always.



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