Re: tlug: Office suite for use under Linux

[Karl-Max Wagner <karlmax@example.com>]

Hi everybody,

there's a lot of discussion about office suites lately, so I
want to add my $.02 too....

What I miss in all that discussion is the Andrew Desktop. It was
developed at Carnegie Mellon a long time ago and their
secretaries apparently used it a lot. It is built with the Xaw
(Andrew) widget set. This is also used in a lot of japanified
applications, so I guess making a japanized version shouldn't be
(hopefully) that difficult. It may lack quite a few bells and
whistles, but those aren't used in normal work anyway. I think
this should be seriously considered.

Another commercial suite for almost all platforms is Star
Office. Binaries are available for free for Linux. It is not
japanized yet. However, I think Star Division should be informed
that Japan is a big market and they could make a lot of money
with a japanized version. They would make a Windows version as
well - and, most probably, a free japanized Linux version as
well.

Their strategy so far is as follows: Give the Linux version away
for free. This helps conquering a sort of IT elite (Linux users
tend to be computer power users). These people often have the
say in companies and - when happy with their Linux version -
will order Windows versions for their company --> business.

Thus, feel free to send them email and tell them. It might help.

Technically spoken, the problem appears to me as follows:
Most office suites comprise a word processor, a database, a
spreadsheet and some graphics capabilities. Individually all
that exists under Linux. There is no doubt about databases and
spreadsheets. They are there.

Wordprocessors are more difficult. This comes from the fact that
textprocessors ( in particular TeX ) have a strong foothold in
the UNIX world, and that for good reason. On the long run a
textprocessor does a much better job than a wordprocessor. Why ?
Because it does the whole typesetting automatically. With a
wordprocessor you, the user, has to do it. While this may be
appropriate for small and casual jobs, it is a real chore if you
write a lot of letters or articles or books. If you write a
book, you are normally not supposed to do the typesetting,
that's normally the publisher's job.

Using LaTeX requires some learning, sure, but in the long run it
pays off. OR - if you are a lazy one, you use LyX. LyX has a
look and feel like a wordprocessor, but it is part of a
textprocessor. However, japanized versions don't exist yet - LyX
is developed by a euro - american team which lacks the required
expertise. In fact they already state loudly that they would
appreciate help in that (hint :)).

Another problem is capability to handle Microsoft "standards".
Well, this IS a big problem because these standards are not well
(if at all) documented and change every few weeks. This is a
serious handicap for someone writing import and export filters.

Well, lets summarize what would help:

- make a front end integrating the available parts
- japanize LyX
- make the required interface filters to interface with the
  Microsoft world

Finally, I have to admit that I never used an office suite so
far - I type my stuff under LyX, I am still using an old dbase
version for my addresses under dosemu, never used a spreadsheet
(personally I think they are sort of an interpreted programming
language - under Linux I can write such stuff as well using one
of the available programming languages like perl or so - well,
that's my way, others might think differently) and I do drawings
with xfig.

Japanization is not a big issue for me - it's nice, but I'm in
electronics and in that Japanese is nice, but the international
language is English and if you write something you have to do it
in English most of the time....well, but that is personal as
well....

BTW, I'm not a native speaker of English either......

                                 Karl-Max Wagner
                                 karlmax@example.com
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