Is the Linux desktop really here ? was: Re:[linux-audio-user]ebayguy: looks like he figured it out

[eviltwin69 at cableone.net]

Yeah, and (God I hate to say this) Micro$oft Excel is actually a damn good product.  On it's own merits it beats the pants off just about anything else out there.

Jan




-----Original Message-----
From:	"linux-audio-user-bounces at music.columbia.edu" <linux-audio-user-bounces at music.columbia.edu> on behalf of	"Mark Knecht" <markknecht at comcast.net>
Sent:	Mon, 08 Dec 2003 09:04:46 -0800
To:	"John Bleichert" <syborg at earthlink.net>, "A list for linux audio users" <linux-audio-user at music.columbia.edu>
Subject:	RE: Is the Linux desktop really here ? was: Re:[linux-audio-user]ebayguy: looks like he figured it out

On Mon, 2003-12-08 at 07:01, John Bleichert wrote:
> On Mon, 8 Dec 2003 eviltwin69 at cableone.net wrote:
> >
> > My wife is the comptroller for a US Navy activity.  She is the ultimate hard-core Excel user ;-)  Neither Open Office nor Gnumeric can handle the macros that she uses.
> >
> > Jan
> >
> 
> Yeah, I bet. That's a difficult switch. Although, to be fair, OO Calc or
> Gnumeric would work fine if she chose to re-program all those macros in
> their native macro languages ;-) (Does gnumeric have one? I haven't used
> it in years)

In my experience this isn't the way the world works. She's probably
receiving Excel spreadsheets from others that already have stuff
embedded that won't work with Linux tools. I ran into this problem big
time when we looked at Star Office and Open Office for work. We couldn't
use either as their compatibility with both Word and Excel wasn't good
enough and broke our compatibility with both our vendors and our
customers.

As someone who runs a business, why would I want to pay someone $600 to
fix 10 documents when I can buy Microsoft's tools for $300 and have
guaranteed compatibility? That's a tough sell...