Re: [ProgSoc] UTS ISP

[Roland Turner <raz@nospam.arrakis.com.au>]

pkennedy@nospam.keycorp.com.au wrote:

> }> Point 5 Word, Excel and Powerpoint (and probably heaps of other)
> }> applications don't run on Linux.
> }
> }This is not entirely correct. Granted, they still run a little better on
> }Windows, but the gap is narrowing.

> are we talking about real MS products? not emulators or hack/ported
> versions?
> if so i'm out of date, and apologise for my ignorance :)

The Win16 versions run flawlessly on Linux and have done for ages,
courtesy of WABI. Granted, WABI is commercial software, but so are Word,
Excel and Powerpoint.

The Win32 versions run tolerably on Linux, courtesy of Twin. It is not
yet anywhere near as slick as WABI, but it is freeware and WABI doesn't
do Win32.

> also there's the issues of speed and cost and compatability.
> If indeed you can run these programs, will they perform as the average user
> would expect, and would they cost more than your everyday Word for Windows.

We are talking about actual everyday Word for Windows, and comparable
(sometimes better, sometimes worse) performance on the same hardware.

> }> that's about that get's used in those labs :)
> }
> }This is also not correct. Now, if only some industrious ProgSoc members
> }would take up my challenge...
> i guess some stats of what software is used the most in ITD labs would
> answer that debate.
> (Excluding email and porn, i mean web, browsers)

Which isn't what you said. Walk through an ITD PC lab sometime. In my
experience more than half of the screens are showing Netscape and/or
telnet. Yes, people are using MS Office stuff, but it's nowhere near
being the only software that gets used.

- Raz
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