Gowator Posted January 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 The only thing that *I* need for what I do with my computer is income tax software. But that's something I don't forsee happening for a long time. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hmm not much chance of open source developers accepting liability for that and it would need auditing and stuff and some certification I would imagine I guess which leaves either professional development or something paid for by the IRS... In France its possible on the internet though Im not sure home good the SW is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phunni Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 Games - we need more commercial games to be released for Linux imho... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted January 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 When I was producing signs, there was no linux software that would design, RIP for wide format print, or trace to line art for a cutter. The software I used, Flexisign Pro, was available in both windows and mac. I used both. No linux. This is $5,000 per seat software. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Ahhh .. you should have asked ... I used to use some RIP SW for very large format plotters and supported huge versatec's down to the HP1050 etc. (for some reason the name eludes me ritght now...) but it was a direct replacement for ZEH which is a real pig of a plotting backend... You just took this a s a backend and pipe the print output to it ... and in addition to RIP also did cgm's and other large format stuff. However this brings me onto the next part which is microstation ... which used to be UNIX then UNIX and Windows and now Windows only... or AutoCad ... p.s. Software doesn't need to be FREE or even opensource for the purpose of this thread .. Im just looking for stuff that can't be bought for any price on linux ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 Let's start with the obvious ones: MS Office components, incl Works and such. LN has been named - though IBM does make sure it will run with Wine, they stated they won't make a Linux client available... I understood there's also a possibility to connect to the Domino server with a browser - no idea how to do that or if that's an ok way to work. Anyway, for those programs, there's crossover office or wine - which also works fine for Photoshop I've been told. The big problem that you're going to run into is that there may be an equivalent, but the cost of switching the workforce to a different program may outweigh a switch to Linux... I don't have more programs on my 'not available for Linux' list, since I actually have a company Linux desktop, alongside a Win2k machine, which I use just for LN and Office (I actually do have OOo on it too). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 Have used the web browser to connect to Lotus Notes before in the past. It's very webmail'ish so is OK and workable. About the best alternative when no Lotus Notes client available, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted January 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 Let's start with the obvious ones: MS Office components, incl Works and such.LN has been named - though IBM does make sure it will run with Wine, they stated they won't make a Linux client available... I understood there's also a possibility to connect to the Domino server with a browser - no idea how to do that or if that's an ok way to work. Anyway, for those programs, there's crossover office or wine - which also works fine for Photoshop I've been told. The big problem that you're going to run into is that there may be an equivalent, but the cost of switching the workforce to a different program may outweigh a switch to Linux... I don't have more programs on my 'not available for Linux' list, since I actually have a company Linux desktop, alongside a Win2k machine, which I use just for LN and Office (I actually do have OOo on it too). <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I still find there is little in MS office components that is really *needed* though the cost of retraining AND converting existing stuff might be prohibitive this is largely just a historical problem. However what is weird IMHO about office is its acceptance as the defacto standard. If for instance two companies exchange technical drawings or numersous other files then a save_as in say autocad is usually good enough and the other companty might not actually use autocad but will import the file ... this is the same if its freehand, photoshop etc. etc. companies are willing to accept that another company might just use alternative SW and that the save_as filters might not be 100% perfect but they can get someone to iron out problems... When its Word or powerpoint no such lattitude exists. Especially if you are the supplier .. the client wants Word Vxxx.xxx files and won't accept OO saveAs In my old job I had a WinXP machine in my office which ran a remote session to various *nix boxes and only ever used the Win box as my mail client for LN and internet access which was banned from *nix machines (presumably due to security worries? LOL) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 One thing worth mentioning: I was told that Microsoft Office is chosen quite often because Access owns features that no other program offers, thus a transition of Access databases to open-source alternatives ain't possible many times, even if companies would like to move to alternatives due to the cost factor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted January 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 One thing worth mentioning: I was told that Microsoft Office is chosen quite often because Access owns features that no other program offers, thus a transition of Access databases to open-source alternatives ain't possible many times, even if companies would like to move to alternatives due to the cost factor. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I don't think it actually has features that can't be replicated but it has features that can't be easily exported because of the structure of the .mdb file and permissions etc. I find it a decent RAD tool except it makes it impossible to port the application to a real database afterwards and thus like many MS products leaves you locked in... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 Access has no features that can't be managed by OOo2/ any free SQL frontend. But surely enough, while OO2 write is much better than MS Word (and I mean it!), calc is just a pale relative of Exhel- it misses lots of Exhel's advanced features. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyv Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Open office has terrible file locking problems when using samba and accessing via linux. Linux users can open files already opened by a windows users or other linux user and overwrite them. And yes the charting in calc has always been substandard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aioshin Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Microsoft Visio... is there a way a visio file can be imported to Dia or kvio?.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Yes. Visio can be read by dia, although Visio is more robust. Incidently, Visio was not developed by Microsoft, who aquired the program (and the company) only recently. It is an example of Microsoft gobbling up good software rather than creating anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted January 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Yes. Visio can be read by dia, although Visio is more robust. Incidently, Visio was not developed by Microsoft, who aquired the program (and the company) only recently. It is an example of Microsoft gobbling up good software rather than creating anything. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Its also quite indicative of how we tend to think in terms of brands. Even though I knew what you said already MS Visio rolls off the tongue far too easily .. like practically all the MS products that were acquired either to kill them (FoxPro) or just rebadged like Visio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 I much preferred ABC Flowcharter by Micrografx than Visio, even before it became owned by Microsoft. Although it's probably not much heard of now, a shame was a real good product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted January 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 I much preferred ABC Flowcharter by Micrografx than Visio, even before it became owned by Microsoft. Although it's probably not much heard of now, a shame was a real good product. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I remember that.... again spooky how it dissapeared after MS took over Visio! and dbase dissapeared whern MS took over foxpro ... and .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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