Slashdot Mirror
OpenOffice Coder On StarOffice 6.0's Beta Release
"Release 6 also gets rid of the old Star Office desktop of version 5 which was generally disliked for its annoying tendency to cover up all of the other windows you were working with and make it difficult to interact with your X Window Manager.
The application suite has programable APIs for each of the applications, exposed through a custom object request broker named UNO. In an impressive demonstration, Max showed live update of a spreadsheet with real-time stock data, all under the control of a small Java application. Changed data were reflected throughout the spreadsheet table with each update as the sheet recalculated each cell based on the new input.
Max freely admits that there are still weaknesses in the code. He pointed to the ten year lifespan of the mostly C++ code base, and hopes to see the code improved with the use of more modern C++ features. In browsing through the source tree I don't find that the code is in nearly as bad shape as Max portrayed it. Admittedly I've only seen a tiny fraction of the code (at 3.7 million lines, OpenOffice is by far the largest open source project in the world), but my random sampling showed very good coding practises, like preprocessor guards around each header include to reduce compile time due to reopening headers that have already been processed. Even with these measures in place however, the full system takes upwards of 15 hours and 1.5GB of disk to build on currently available hardware.
System load time for the office suite has been significantly reduced (about 20s on Max's 500MHz laptop with 128MB memory) by removing several libraries from the link process and instead loading them on demand. Over the next year or more Max hopes to see more modularization of the code base with the eventual goal of seperating the monolithic program into seperate applications linked together through an object request broker.
Q&A went on until we got kicked out of our room, so there is a lot more that is new about OpenOffice than I've described here. If you are interested you can pick up a copy at OpenOffice.org, or at one of its mirrors around the world."
Inflate me!
At least, I would have gotten it, had the 20 second limit not erased my comment
To all dfead penis birds.
And living cyborg_monkeys.
If I weren't nailed to the penis, I'd be pushing up the daisies!
like preprocessor guards around each header include to reduce compile time due to reopening headers that have already been processed
They're so advanced! Really, you couldn't have found a better example of good code out of 3.7M lines of code?
Does it have "Clippy"? Otherwise I'm not interested.
I'd like to register a complaint about this penis bird I purchased from this botique not half an hour ago.....
All right! Look out M$ Office!
Acts of massive stupidity are almost never covered by warranty. --me.
Wow, I hope now linux finally has a less bloated and faster office suite. I know Star Office has come a long way, but I think that this solution is better for the end user because it allows more customization. I.E. You can remove parts that you don't like like autocomplete or other "features". I'll have to try this along side star office, hopefully both have matured greatly.
Ithumbz: World's Greatest Thumbnails
If it has been, openoffice.org sure doesn't know about it. All that is available for download are some "recent builds" with not "W00t! First Release!" hysteria anywhere. Maybe the title should have been "OpenOffice guy interviewed, betas available". But that might be expecting too much from poor Timothy.. I mean, he'd have to actually follow a link!
How does it stack up against Star Office 6.0 Beta?
A side by side feature comparison would be nice...
My rights don't need management.
The article states that "Release 6 also gets rid of ... its annoying tendency to cover up all of the other windows you were working", but I can't seem to find any screenshots on their website or anywhere else. I have no doubt that the look & feel is similar to Microsoft's Office suite (also Corel's WordPerfect, but I digress) but I'd like to know if they got rid of their start-button oriented interface.
Anybody had this working and would be willing to GIMP a screenshot?
I piss on Mecca. I shit on the Koran. I spit on Mohammed.
I sure hope you can download executables that run without a hitch. That is no small potatoes for most users.
science is a religion
As far as I can tell (and I ran to OpenOffice.org) Open Office 6.0 *HAS NOT* been released. I think someone is mixing up the Star Office 6.0 BETA with Open Office (the SO Beta is based on the last OO build)
Yours is too small.
Wow! And Linux is still at 2.4, windows is so high they stopped counting and started using letters!
:)
What is pirate software? Software for inventory of stolen treasure?
Open Office 6 was not released on wednesday. They released a build called Open Office 6 beta 638c. It's more like a milestone release on the way to a proper version 6. Sort of like what mozilla does. The final version isn't scheduled for some time yet, see the roadmap.
I can't believe that 20 seconds on a 500 Mhz machine is a good load time for a word processor!
This is the sort of thing that will be thrown in my face when I try to tell people to give OpenOffice a shot.
Here's an SAT-style analogy:
StarOffice OpenOffice as
Netscape 6.x Mozilla
It's as simple as that.
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
Unless it's just my @home service blocking M$ competition, why doesn't anyone check to see if these URLs work?!
Here's a hint - THEY DON'T!
*Check* before posting. Please. Don't tease us like this.
Does anyone know specifics on the differences between OpenOffice and StarOffice versions 6.0? I think that StarOffice is actually based on the new OpenOffice source code base. (Or, is it the other way around?) Theu look very similar. Are there significant technical or feature differences?
Your Servant, B. Baggins
I can't hit anything on openoffice.org (already slashdotted?). Anyone have the list of mirror download locations?
End of lesson. You may press the button.
he's not dead, he's restin' !
Yeah, that's right, SUCK IT!
You're an anonymous c0cksucker. Should cum naturally for ya.
Can you imagine a World Trade Center of these?
"from the another-promising-one dept."
*Groan*. Yup, I actually have a version of a file explorer I'm coming out with. It doesn't open files or perform basic file operations, but the icons are there and they look pretty. I expect to have the "missing features" done, but it's GPL'd. That should mean something, right?
Com'on, it's "promising"!
Not to criticize the OpenOffice project, which is only trying to provide a reasonably-priced replacement for MS Office, but what the hell is so compicated about text documents and spreadsheets that it takes such a whomping code base to handle it?
It strikes me as sick that so much human effort is going into a piece of software that will be used primarily to create email attachments that can't be read by non-Office users, all of which will be essentially plain text but inflated in size by several times by the inefficient document format.
OK, I'm done ranting now. There's nothing to see here. More along.
That's "Mr. Soulless Automaton" to you, Bub.
A few years back Sun also bought some Java Office Suites. Since they haven't decided to do anything with them, they should release them as open source as well in case anyone would like to work on them/reuse code.
I've not yet gotten the release but I'd have to say OpenOffice is a big improvement in many ways over StarOffice. Unfortunately, the build I got a month ago didn't allow conversion between html docs and swd (or whatever its called now), which really annoyed me. Its a toss up whether loosing that horrid desktop thing is worth it. (I like to publish everything I document as HTML).
It does seem to load substantially faster and run a tad more stable than Star Office did.
All in all I have pretty good luck converting to and from M$ Word. The changes are usually the same types of things that happen when switching the printer settings around on M$ Word.
Unfortunately, I've less luck with the Spreadsheet piece. It writes XLS files in a really weird format (I looked at it via biff view and via my project sourceforge.net/projects/poi) it doesn't always load properly and sometimes crashes excel.
(long story on the differences, too boring for here)...
So can you ditch Office and use OpenOffice -- not if you're a big spreadsheet user that needs to talk to Excel, but for most people -- definately!
(In open office's defence, they use glibole2 which is some of the nastiest looking C code I've ever seen -- see www.gnome.org. You have to expand about 20 layers of macros to even understand one line of code! Its a miracle they can write anything)
I'm huge. I'm a freakin superstar, bitch!
The real thing. Accept no substitute!
All it does for me is segfault. Very exciting.
...
// Performance Mods (B.G.; Microsoft Inc.)
// openOffice->launch();
// spin cpu to look busy
int main()
{
unsigned long launch_time = gettimeofday()+20;
while(1)
{
if( gettimeofday() == launch_time )
break;
}
openOffice->launch();
}
Treatment, not tyranny. End the drug war and free our American POWs.
See my user info for links.
First, as others have noted, this is just another beta.
Having said that, if you want to get the sources, stop Slashdotting openoffice.org and get it from Akamai. At least they've got the bandwidth to deal with the load.
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
Star Office has released version 6.0 beta.
See the banner on Sun's homepage
OpenOffice is currently offering release 638
See www.openoffice.org for details.
Are they related? Yes. Are they the same? Certainly not!
Please try to clarify this point in the posted article!
http://sapi.vlsm.org/openoffice/
read last mirrored Release notes: yes it seems to have spell checking, help,etc...
First of all, excellent to see that OpenOffice is out. The Free software community needs a solid heavyweight office suite with all the bells and whistles, and Open Office is shaping up to be exactly that.
I think we're also seeing the development of two quite distinct niches for Office software, at least on Linux and other Free *nix. Perhaps a little like the split used to be between MS Works and Office:
On the one hand, we have OpenOffice, a big heavyweight that has features pouring out of its ears, but which is not tremendously tightly integrated to any desktop, nor perhaps the most intuitive set of programs to use. It's also heavy on system resources and diskspace, but that's the price you pay for having all the bells and whistles.
On the other hand, there's the younger, lighter suites like KOffice. Leaner, faster, easier, and more tightly integrated with the desktop. At the same time, lacking a few features that may be necessary for some people, but satisfying the needs of an average Joe quite well.
It seems to me there's a place for both of these in the Linux desktop landscape, and frankly, I think this is great.
Or rather, it will be great once they can read each other's file formats ;)
fud IS dead. we're almost sure of IT. have you seen these guys? now featuring face scans, of the REAL .commIEs?
We both know that yours is microscopic.
Best wishes with that natural penis enlargement.
Dolly
Remember the last time it got stuck between my teeth and you jumped around screaming all the time ?
Won't have happened if yours was a little bigger than 5 millimeters.
Dolly
Hey slow down! I'm still in the process of /. my harddrive with startoffice 6.0.
I guess ADSL sucks now.
hmm..... maybe up ahead.
Nope, not me, I must be someone else...
And what the fuck are you talking about, anyways?
There once was a company, Sun
Star Office, their package, claimed done
MS changed formats
So Sun is their doormat
And the work has only begun!
Nimda is the contra-virus that everyone wanted at the outbreak of the original code red.
Hallelujah!
SUCK
8======D
onto
my
PENIS!
SUCK
8======D
onto
my
PENIS!
SUCK
8======D
onto
my
PENIS!
... that it supported Hebrew. I saw some notice of Bi-Directional text display support, but Hebrew is not supported (neither in the documentation, nor in the released version). I just hope that someone adds at least basic support (even without a spell checker).
Is there a freedom software distro for Microsoft Windows. Such a thing would be a great boon. They should be everywhere like AOL cd's.
Such a thing should include
OpenOffice, Mozilla, Gimp, Apache(not enabled by default), Perl And so on...
I mean really how many people would buy office XP if they had a shiny "new" cd sitting around with a free compatible equivilent. It is the perfect opportunity to move people to the apps, and then the OS looks much more tempting.
And no most people don't write vbs scripts in word they have enough trouble with fonts and margins.
Could some Linuxish orginiztion pick up the tab for the creation or shipping???
Novel theory: Modern Man evolved from psychopath
I recently had a user with a corrupted MS Excel spreadsheet that would immediately crash Excel every time it was opened. I tried Excel 2000, Excel 97, Excel Viewer, and nothing worked.
So, I tried to open it with the Win32 version of OpenOffice build 638. Hmmm, so far so good - it opened with no problems. I saved it as a native OpenOffice document; reopened it in OpenOffice; and exported it as an Excel document. Finally, I tried to open it with Excel and it worked like a charm!
So if nothing else, OpenOffice makes a nifty file repairer for MS Office documents. ;-)
... sampling showed very good coding practises, like preprocessor guards around each header include to reduce compile time due to reopening headers that have already been processed ...
Um. Like who doesn't do this? Due to the nature of C++, this is required to avoid redefinitions that would otherwise occur on multiple inclusions. Given this, it has little to do with reducing compile time; for that you use pre-compiled headers (support for which isn't expected in GCC until 3.1 or later).To evaluate coding practices, I would look at
Consistent coding conventions: syntax, identifiers, directory layout etc.
Presence of good comments (German ones don't count ;).
Application of good OO principles (which, contrary to a surprising number of people's opinions, apply to all languages, not merely explicitly OO languages like C++), such as encapsulation, modularization, etc.
Application of good OO patterns (GangOfFour-style).
Use of interfaces ("abstract base classes" in Bjarne terminology) to decouple API interfaces from their implementation.
Presence of unit tests.
Presence of assertions and other kinds of code guards that contribute to "self-documenting" and "self-testing" code.
etc.
*yawn* Yeah, no-one ever said that before.
Just kinda wondering when debian packages will start showing up in unstable. I heard awhile ago that it may be sometime before that occurs, but I havent heard any news recently.
"My head hurts, My feet stink, and I dont love Jesus." -Jimmy Buffett
I seem to be having a problem with StarOffice and OpenOffice 6, it all installs fine but when it's run, selecting any of the menus (file edit etc) causes a "internal program error" and crashes!
Anyone else have a problem like this?
(at 3.7 million lines, OpenOffice is by far the largest open source project in the world)
I wasn't sure about this, so I took a look at the linux kernel source:
$ cd
$ find . -name \*.[ch] -exec cat \{\} \; | wc -l
3130679
So OpenOffice is bigger than the Linux kernel, but only by around 15%. I don't know if you can say it's by far the largest.
Yeah, I know I'm being pedantic.
dash dash Chris
I guess MS also includes copy of the last document I scanned, an encrypted list of the last 30 URLS you clicked plus what software was installed. Here is what an SO-6 document looks like (hint: unzip it)
e " xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:chart="http://openoffice.org/2000/chart" xmlns:dr3d="http://openoffice.org/2000/dr3d" xmlns:math="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:form="http://openoffice.org/2000/form" xmlns:script="http://openoffice.org/2000/script" office:class="text" office:version="1.0">
As you can see unicode is used here as well. Also READABLE XML. Looks okay doesn't it?
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE office:document-content PUBLIC "-//OpenOffice.org//DTD OfficeDocument 1.0//EN" "office.dtd">
<office:document-content xmlns:office="http://openoffice.org/2000/office" xmlns:style="http://openoffice.org/2000/style" xmlns:text="http://openoffice.org/2000/text" xmlns:table="http://openoffice.org/2000/table" xmlns:draw="http://openoffice.org/2000/drawing" xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:number="http://openoffice.org/2000/datastyl
<office:script/>
<office:font-decls>
<style:font-decl style:name="Arial Unicode MS" fo:font-family="'Arial Unicode MS'" style:font-pitch="variable"/>
<style:font-decl style:name="HG Mincho Light J" fo:font-family="'HG Mincho Light J'" style:font-pitch="variable"/>
<style:font-decl style:name="Thorndale" fo:font-family="Thorndale" style:font-family-generic="roman" style:font-pitch="variable"/>
<style:font-decl style:name="Albany" fo:font-family="Albany" style:font-family-generic="swiss" style:font-pitch="variable"/>
</office:font-decls>
<office:automatic-styles/>
<office:body>
<text:sequence-decls>
<text:sequence-decl text:display-outline-level="0" text:name="Illustration"/>
<text:sequence-decl text:display-outline-level="0" text:name="Table"/>
<text:sequence-decl text:display-outline-level="0" text:name="Text"/>
<text:sequence-decl text:display-outline-level="0" text:name="Drawing"/>
</text:sequence-decls>
<text:p text:style-name="Heading">This</text:p>
<text:h text:style-name="Heading 1" text:level="1">IS</text:h>
<text:p text:style-name="Text body"/>
<text:h text:style-name="Heading 10" text:level="10">wetzgdfhdfh</text:h>
<text:p text:style-name="Marginalia">TITLE</text:p>
<text:p text:style-name="Marginalia"/>
<text:p text:style-name="Salutation">My FRIEND</text:p>
<text:p text:style-name="List Indent">Klar?</text:p>
<text:p text:style-name="List Indent"/>
<text:p text:style-name="Signature">Testpeter</text:p>
</office:body>
</office:document-content>
Moritz
If you're comparing against MS Office, it's a unfair comparison, because they load up most of it when windows starts. Also, this is a Notebook computer, remember that the hard drives in them are very slow. So, on a desktop with 550mhz desktop with 256mb of ram it ought to be more like 8 seconds... especially if you aren't running kde :-)
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
Wow... The beta was released just two days ago, and the final product is already out. How about we find out if what we post is even realistic before doing so?
Posted from the wireless couch.
Does the Windows verison of OpenOffice have an uninstaller?
i realize that these programs have different aims, but one of the nice things about stickies on the mac or notepad on windows (not that it compares to stickies)
The rough Mac equivalent to notepad would be simpletext, although this almost infringes on wordpad's territory, with styled text and all.
aside from being built in, is that it launches in around 1 second. sometimes you just need to get it down.
There's no reason you couldn't leave an Emacs instance open or launch Vim to jot down the start of an idea while OpenOffice loads. Both programs run on Windows or Unix. Heck, on my win98 box, Emacs for Windows launches faster than wordpad (I've timed them).
Will I retire or break 10K?
I second that. I submitted a request against the package wnpp a while back but still haven't heard anything. Why can't it be released as part of Debian?
David
To the poster who was asking why you needed such a huge code base for a text editor, try loading a complex MS Word doc and then save it using StarOffice 6's native file format, 'sxw'. The sxw format is actually a pkzip file which contains a bunch of XML files and the associated image resources.
If you look at the content.xml file, you'll get an idea of the vast amount of formatting and structural information that is retained in an MS Word style file.
- jon
Ganymede, a GPL'ed metadirectory for UNIX
I did a little write-up a few weeks ago when I installed it - this page has a small screenshot that shows the button layout and a document that uses anti-aliased, truetype fonts.
(Yes this is the Linux version, running Gnome...)
http://mmdc.net/linux/office.shtml
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
-- My Weblog.
If you do a 'zipinfo' on the .sxw file, you'll see that it is a pkzip file with all of the data contained in xml files and attendant graphics files.
The file format isn't so terribly space efficient, it's just compressed. Getting to actually see the contents of the file and understand what the structure of the file really looks like is pretty neat-o.
- jon
Ganymede, a GPL'ed metadirectory for UNIX
I second that. I submitted a request against the package wnpp a while back but still haven't heard anything. Why can't it be released as part of Debian?
Apparently OpenOffice relies on jdk > 1.1 (or whatever can be freely redistributed in binary form) for some functionality. See an old thread here. I hope we get something soon...
Is there a freedom software distro for Microsoft Windows. Such a thing would be a great boon. They should be everywhere like AOL cd's.
There exists such a distribution of GNU software compiled for Win32, available in the UK. Too bad cheapbytes doesn't seem to sell anything similar. However, cheapbytes does sell this CD containing DJGPP (a 32-bit DOS C compiler) and "LLC" (LCC?) for Win32.
What you're really missing is a business model. AOL's model is to give away the bisks and sell the connection.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Several readers have pointed out that the 6.0 release is actually the beta of StarOffice 6.0 . Though StarOffice is based on OpenOffice code, there's not actually a new build of OpenOffice yet. OpenOffice's is currently at build 638.
Heaven forbid you say something like, "Well, I fucked up pretty royally, didn't I? I called the SO6.0beta a new release, which incidentally was discussed at great length earlier on Slashdot. Pretty dumb mistake, I realize, but at least I'm man enough to admit it."
Your little "update" that I've italicized above is something that every reader of Slashdot already knew (except you, apparently).
What a spineless little limpdick you are.....
buy, now...
I downloaded staroffice 638C yesterday.
It takes significant time to load (appox. 1 and a half minutes) to load!!!
Bet
OS/2 - because choice is a terrible thing to waste.
Get over it.
Oh, and it's spelled "truly".
http://www.webster.com/
bye, now.......
buy, now...
Thank God Star Desktop Is Gone!!! :-)
I don't want a little windoze with my Linux...
I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
Hm, I think I'll stick to AbiWord. It crashes as much, but it starts much more quickly.
OpenOffice takes about 25 seconds under normal system load, whilst AbiWord takes no more than 3, and has sufficient functionality (except for utterly worthless font support). OpenOffice crashed immediately when I was to save a presentation.
give me bongo
Okay, OpenOffice is better than it was before (i.e. no stupid pseudo-Windows Start button).
Unfortunately, it is still FUGLY!
Any idea if/when they might update the user interface so it's as sweet looking as AbiWord?
I tried the 6.0 beta as well as the Openoffice latest build with some of my .doc and .xls files and most of the things opened fine. Also the export to .doc files worked very well.
.doc and .xls files.
One feature that's missing is the "text-art" facility in Word. They open fine, only without the extra properties defined by text-art. I dont know if Openoffice/Sun has any plans for any text-art kind of feature ( I could not find anything similar in 6.0 beta ).
Here's a screenshot showing imported
Sure, it can't import a tab delimted text file correctly into the spreadsheet, but hey it has preprocessor directives that every C book tells you to do.
Ok - I know that was flamebait and pretty weak at that, but you are wrong. (On two points.) I am only answering because I hate when people spread misinformation and FUD.
1 - Open Office Does Run On Windows. Check the web page. It works great on Windows.
2 - Linux can do screen captures: See below.
3 - OS coders have big fingers? - probably true, but you know what they say about people with big hands...
Screen captures:
I had no trouble at all getting a screen capture of the Linux desktop. The Gimp has a simple utility for doing it that works much like "SnagIT" for capturing screens in windows. I could map it to the 'Print Screen' button if I cared that much...
You spend an awful lot of time and energy bashing Linux - (221 posts is quite a lot) Unfortunately, they seem to always get modded down to -1, so, as is the case for most readers, they are filtered out and I never see them. (Pity - I love a good flamewar...)
You seem to have used Linux in the past - did it make you feel inadequate? Go get yourself a copy of Mandrake or another 'Newbie' distros and have someone help you install it. Then at least you can bash Linux with up-to-date information.
When you complain about the lack of features that were added like 3 years ago, you tend to sound like an idiot. Trust me there are plenty of things in the current versions to bash.
Don't worry, even if you get to like it, you can still flame people for using Emacs...
Cheers,
Jim
-- My Weblog.
Any coder who can't tell the difference between "+= 1" and "++" shouldn't be coding. How many lines of code have you actually written in your life? 100?
like preprocessor guards around each header include to reduce compile time due to reopening headers that have already been processed ...
Um. Like who doesn't do this?
Um. Like me. Like I don't don't do this. Like all C++ compilers from the last 5 years, like, already like do this for me, like, automatically like. Like, I prefer to have fewer lines of code instead of like redundant, like, include guards.
and much more better quality codes - less line for sure.
The Linux operating system was born in 1991 and was created by one man, a Finnish student coincidentally named Linux Torvalds. Since these humble beginnings, a multi-million dollar industry has sprung up to exploit the commercial potential of Linux, but until recently Linux has eluded mainstream acceptance. However, due to the recent economic downturn together with uncertainty over changes to Microsoft's pricing policy, Linux is now being touted as a serious contender to Microsoft Windows. While there are many other alternatives to Windows, including BSD which is based on SUN's (Stanford University Network - correction by bc) server-grade Solaris operating system, none have commanded the same level of media attention as Linux.
Linux Mandrake is just the latest in a long line of quirkily christened versions of Linux. Previous versions of Linux have been named Red Hat, Slack Ware, Storm and Coral. In stark contrast to the mundane names such as 98, ME or NT preferred by Microsoft, the crazy names of each Linux release hint at its renegade nature.
My foray into the world of Linux began by downloading a "CD image" from the Linux web site. But don't worry, this isn't software piracy, it's perfectly legal! Linux is shareware, meaning that it can be freely redistributed without fear of a visit by the Business Software Alliance. The free availability of Linux is a major reason for its popularity among cash-strapped students and self-styled anti-capitalist hackers.
Before installing new software, it is always advisable to read the documentation. Unfortunately, an unpleasant surprise was in store for me in the "required configuration" section of the manual. I was shocked to learn that Linux Mandrake only runs on Pentium processors, meaning that my hopes of testing the water with my old Gateway 486 were dashed. Furthermore, a whopping 32 megabytes of memory are required to run Linux! Although the advocates of Linux self-righteously boast the efficiency of their chosen operating system and deride the "bloatware" produced by Microsoft, it appears that their claims are blatantly incorrect. Although my humble 486 will happily run Windows 95, it seems that Linux requires far more powerful, and more expensive, computer hardware. Is this really the sign of a lean, mean operating system? Of course not.
Sadly, not even being able to install Linux is just the first of my many complaints. A brief perusal of the features of Linux Mandrake reveals that Linux is sorely lacking many crucial productivity applications. For example, why isn't the industry standard web browser, Internet Explorer, included with Linux? Despite the best efforts of the experts at the Internet Engineering Task Force to encourage adoption of the Internet Explorer standard, the creators of Linux seem to think that they know better. By refusing to adhere to recognised standards, Linux is simply undermining its own credibility.
Similarly, almost all of the world's most popular and widely used software is completely incompatible with Linux! It may surprise you to learn that your copy of Microsoft Office, Outlook Express, or Lotus Notes will not work under Linux. Those who wish to use their computer for recreational purposes are also out of luck, for almost all of the most popular games are unavailable for Linux. Although a wide range of software is freely available for Linux, these pitiful offerings are mostly unfinished, unreliable and do not bear comparison to their commercial counterparts.
Computer security is also an area that seems to have been overlooked by the developers of Linux. In these times when hacking and viruses are commonplace, it defies belief to learn that no anti-virus software is available for Linux. To add insult to injury, there is no Linux version of the popular ZoneAlarm firewall. By using Linux, you are issuing an open invitation to the hordes of ne'er-do-wells on the Internet.
The shortcomings of Linux are obvious. Without even installing Linux Mandrake, I have exposed several fundamental flaws. Surely it is not too much to expect that, after ten years of development, the creators of Linux would have addressed these problems? The real question that the prospective Linux user must ask himself is, "Why bother?" After all, Microsoft Windows comes free with most PCs and there simply isn't a need to replace it, particularly not with a product of inferior quality.
Although it is always tempting to support the underdog, Windows XP will be the deserved victor in the battle ahead. I recommend that those readers who are hoping to upgrade their operating system patiently wait for the release of Windows XP, rather than foolishly wasting their time, effort and money on Linux.
HAND
P.S. Spelling has nothing to do with open-mindedness, fuckstick. "Truely" is simply incorrect. Believe what you like, though.
Hey, you still use OS/2, so you obviously have a rather tenuous grasp on reality.
buy, now...
Blackdown J2SE 1.3 has been in incoming for two weeks now. Let's just hope it gets transferred into the official archives soon. Check this message on the debian-java list.
Yes, there is a new build yet, and for some time at that - OpenOffice.org 638C wich *is* different from 638.
GCC performs that optimization.
GCC recognizes the construct, and doesn't open the file the second time.
You are such a fucking idiot. I was going to leave you alone after you bit on my Troll, but I just can't stand people who are so sadly misinformed.
Please read this article. Read the whole thing, don't get confused by the paragraph at the end of the first page where it says MS was going to use the OS/2 API. They changed their mind and created their "own" API: Win32, which was an extension of the Win16 API.
Bear in mind this article is from Win NT Magazine, now called Windows 2000 magazine, the official Win NT/2000 online magazine, so don't try to go questioning the source to support your little fantasy world.
They may have pilfered some of the features you mentioned from OS/2 (wow, MS steal something? Say it isn't so!), but NT was broadly based on VMS, since it was written by a bunch of former VMS hackers.
GAWD , you're myopic. Pull your little pinhead out of your OS/2 ass. There's a big world outside of your irrelevant little operating system. Jesus, you're just like the Amiga freaks.
I'm done, reply if you like, but you obviously refuse to face facts.
buy, now...
Emacs 21 is 359801 lines of C code, and 795987 lines of Lisp code. So it is only about a third the size of OpenOffice or Linux, even though it does so much more.
Since you asked.
As a member of the Project, let me clear a few things up:
OpenOffice.org is an Open-Source project sponsored by Sun and Collabnet. It is currently Build 638C, and has not even reached version 1.0. This is mostly because we've sepnd a lot of time replacing proprietary componets from StarOffice, such as the spellchecker, fonts, and conversion filters.
StarOffice is a commerical Sun product, available for free download, which is currently beta-ing its version 6.0. Most of this vesrion is code from OpenOffice.org Build 638 with the addition of the above-mentioned proprietary compnents.
Recarding all of the compaints on features and slow load time: If there's something you'd like to see different about OpenOffice.org, then join the project and write some code, darn it! This is Open Source.
We desperately need more coders from the community. Please, sign up and contribute!
-Josh Berkus
OpenOffice.Org Marketing Project
Oh yeah, but when someone is arguing against M$ they're not a troll? At least I have a f*cking account on /. you Anonymous Coward!
You can't even spell required you idiot!