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One Year Of OpenOffice

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the what-a-burpy-baby-you-have dept.

no parity writes "Last year on October 13, much of the source to Sun's StarOffice was released as the OpenOffice project. They have set up a birthday page to celebrate what they have achieved in that one year - yes, it prints, spellchecks and has online help. Keep up the good work, guys!" Yep - and my installation still spits up, too. *grin*

51 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. Thank God for Open Office! by Roofus · · Score: 3, Funny


    I just checked out news.com - Guess what one of the headlines are?

    Anthrax found in Microsoft office

    Can the DOJ show that MS does harm consumers now?

  2. Getting there by CmdrTroll · · Score: 5, Interesting
    My roommate was an intern at Sun last summer, and he was assisting the OpenOffice team with resolving compatibility issues with MS Orifice 2000. He said that was the biggest stumbling block for the project, aside from memory management and speed issues. He also said that the DoJ was privately talking to a few of his co-workers and they were interested in widening the probe into monopolistic file format practices. I doubt that the current administration will give it a green light, but if they do, that would help knock down the last barriers to seeing OpenOffice on every Windows desktop in the near future.

    Wishful thinking...

    -CT

    1. Re:Getting there by All+Dead+Homiez · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I believe the story on the widened probe is here or here.

  3. Re:5.2 sucks, let's hope 6 doesn't by davecb · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm using 6 beta, and it's better than
    5.x and less buggy: the only things I
    can break are broken in 5.2 as well.

    --
    davecb@spamcop.net
  4. CUPS by redcliffe · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It doesn't print with CUPS. I've tried for ages but it can't see my printer even though all my KDE apps do. Anyone know if there are any moves in this direction?

    David

    1. Re:CUPS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      638 didn't work with cups, but 638C and other versions did.

  5. Old news by RelliK · · Score: 2, Troll

    Anthrax was in Microsoft Office for a long time. But most people called it "The Clippy..."

    --
    ___
    If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
  6. Congrats - What will it take? by pgrote · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Congrats to all involved!

    What will it take for the stranglehold on Microsoft Office to be overcome?

    Many people have suggested that the "new" offices have to have complete file compatibility with Office, but I don't think that's it.

    Others have said that it is necessary for businesses to adopt the suites.

    What do other think?

    I am really interested in this because for three years or so there were four office products you could choose from: Lotus SmartSuite, WordPerfect Office, Microsoft Office and Microsoft Works.

    Then boom ... it was over. Microsoft ruled.

    1. Re:Congrats - What will it take? by gimmie_prozac · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What will it take for the stranglehold on Microsoft Office to be overcome? One big stumbling block is finding employees who know how to use the new software. I work for an employment service, and people with MS Office skills are thinner on the ground than you would think. So given the high costs of finding, hiring, and training workers, if it's hard enough for an employer to find new employees who know MS Office, they will be unlikely to want to switch to a different product, where skilled individuals are even rarer. I would think that breaking MSFT's stranglehold would require, along with file compatibility, making the UI of competing office suites as similar to MS Office as possible, so that it will be easy for people who only know MS Office to switch over. I don't know how feasible this is, especially re: "plagarism" concerns.

    2. Re:Congrats - What will it take? by Tumbleweed · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well, _most_ businesses wouldn't bother unless it _can_ read and write with MS Office apps. I think that's what the DOJ should really do - force MS to open their file specs.

      I think it'd be great for Lotus to open the source to SmartSuite - since IBM owns them, one wonders what the chances are. Then again, they've not opened the code to the OS/2 WPS. *shrug* I've heard from people inside IBM that there's too much licensed code inside those products for them to be able to do that - they simply don't outright own the code those products are made from. That's a shame.

    3. Re:Congrats - What will it take? by foonf · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I think it'd be great for Lotus to open the source to SmartSuite


      This would be kind of silly and wouldn't benefit the Linux community at all. SmartSuite is all Win32, and even the OS/2 port was partly done using a windows-compatibility library (this forms the basis for Project Odin, actually). Mind you, I used Ami Pro in the early 90s, and if quality really mattered, I believe strongly that it would be the dominant word processor right now. But this wouldn't accomplish anything. It would be far better for IBM to support the existing *nix office software efforts.
      --

      "(Man) tries to live his own life as if he were telling a story. But you have to choose: live or tell." --Sartre
  7. Yep - and my installation still spits up, too. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I realize this statement was tongue in cheek but please keep in mind these people are trying to create an office suite that is comparable in functionality with Microsoft Office, currently the best office suite period, that is not only free for download, but also open source. Give the developers some credit for even attempting such a Herculean project.

  8. StarOffice by dmarx · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I just downloaded this yesterday, as I was unable to provide Micro$oft with the pound of flesh to use Office XP. I just used it to do a paper for school. I LOVE this program. Keep up the good work, Sun!

    --
    "Do I dare disturb the universe?"
  9. OpenOffice needs MacOS X programmers! by sakusha · · Score: 5, Informative

    Since StarOffice dropped official support for MacOS X, OpenOffice needs more MacOS X programmers. Microsoft is going to make a huge marketing push for Office X, but if we had working OpenOffice versions, their monopolistic push could be thwarted. But it's too late for now. We need help!

    1. Re:OpenOffice needs MacOS X programmers! by Phroggy · · Score: 4, Informative

      Agreed. It looks like some of the work has been done, but large chunks have not been ported yet. More information here.

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  10. A real good start! by albat0r · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've look at the features list, and tried it too, and I must say that it's a really good start! And I hope that it will continue like it.

    But, even if I know that a lot of you doesn't like Microsoft (and I understand it!), an office suite for Linux can only be complete if it can read/write in .doc format. I'm not saying that this format is better than anything else (an empty .doc file is far from 0k in size, and I've never understand what it can have in it to take that much space on my hard drive...!), but in my case, I have contacts with many people that use Microsoft Office, and I need to share files with them, and read there works and show them mine. Without the support for .doc, this thing become more hard to do; some people don't want to use other things than .doc format. So by now, I use Star Office and KOffice, but I've have trouble with both of them with .doc sometimes. So, if Open Office support this format one day, and handle them good, I'll be very happy to use it!

    So, everybody that work on Open Office, continue your good work!

    1. Re:A real good start! by SCHecklerX · · Score: 2

      If all you need to do is read/show, just give them an acrobat file. WHy should you have to read/write to a format that is 1)not documented, and 2)not native? It doesn't make sense to be saving to .doc things that you created. If you don't need to edit, just have them give you acrobat files to read/print, and you can do the same. If you really do need to both edit the docs, well, too bad they are using a closed proprietary inefficient crap format on a word processor that does what it wants rather than what you want, eh?

  11. It could take a long time... by Drakula · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...due to the file compatibility issue you have mentioned.

    Not that I speak for everyone in a similar situation, but when you work in an enviroment that is 99% msoffice, usually the main stumbling block is "Yeah linux sounds cool but can I read everyone's files under linux? What about Word?"

    It sucks but it seems to be the case in my experience. In fact, that is what kept me strictly a windows user for so long (until recently) was the one or two programs I needed at the time, which we unavailable under linux.

    I'm not saying its right. I'm defending the laziness of the average computer user but it seems that is one of the major issues, and most likely be solved by an open source office suite (which I am impressed with by the way).

    The linux users just have to change the world one user at a time, I can't imagine one single piece of software making that happen.

    --
    "It's comin' back around again..." -RATM
  12. Before I get rid of MS Office... by chrisgeleven · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I want a e-mail program with the same features of Outlook 2000/XP. I'm a college student and I love the Outlook Today feature, which displays your calender, task list, and what new messages you have in your mail folders. It's perfect for me, since reminders always pop-up at the time I set them to and I can, at a quick glance, tell exactly what is going on in the next 7 days + what assignments I need to do. I've switched to Mozilla for browsing, and I am testing StarOffice 6 Beta with my hundreds of Word Documents. But I won't switch e-mail programs until someone offers a program on Windows that offers an Outlook Today-like feature. Until then, I pray that Norton AntiVirus will pick up any viruses that come through the e-mail.

    1. Re:Before I get rid of MS Office... by D+Anderson+n'Swaart · · Score: 2
      Technically speaking, I believe Outlook is an organiser application. Outlook Express, which is integrated into it, is the much smaller email application. But you're right; it would be useful. In my city council where I worked as a sysadmin, Outlook was used extensively for organisation and coordination between departments. It seems to be a very useful and, now, a very critical tool in keeping things running smoothly in most businesses, so it's surprising that the OpenOffice people haven't made some kind of a shot at it already.

      Does anyone know if a project like this is in the works for OpenOffice, and just hasn't been completed yet? It would probably be a fairly extensive addition.

      --

      A word can paint a thousand pictures

    2. Re:Before I get rid of MS Office... by SCHecklerX · · Score: 2

      I thought the point of earning a degree was to learn how to think and do research? What the hell does knowing how to use some dumb software package have to do with that?

      It always amused me in college how business majors actually had *CLASSES* on how to use spreadsheets. Sheesh. We had to use them for everything we did (ok, you could do everything by hand or write a quick FORTRAN program...did I just say that?...but no required class on it.

      Computer Programs are just tools. They aren't the thing you are supposed to be getting an education on. It's sad the things colleges offer as courses of study these days.

  13. Just out of curiosity... by Reality+Master+101 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Does Sun use StarOffice exclusively within Sun? Maybe I just haven't seen all the press releases of them touting how much money they save and the huge success it has been, but isn't a little funny that they don't make a huge deal of Sun being "100% pure StarOffice -- Microsoft free?"

    --
    Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
    1. Re:Just out of curiosity... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Umm, hate to mess with your "sorry, reality bites" attempts, but AFAIK Sun does use StarOffice internally (and has used it before they even bought Star Division, see here). I don't think they have ever used MS Office, so calculating how much they have saved might be a bit difficult.

    2. Re:Just out of curiosity... by Reality+Master+101 · · Score: 2

      That story was two years ago. I would believe that they use it internally, I just find it strange that they don't play it up -- at all. Even the StarOffice web site doesn't seem to mention that Sun uses it.

      You can think all you want that it's no big deal, but given McNealys hatred of everything Microsoft, I find it very suspicious that they don't play it up as any kind of success story.

      --
      Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
    3. Re:Just out of curiosity... by (H)elix1 · · Score: 2

      I didn't hit JavaOne this year - last place became dot.compost before we had tickets... but the year before I looked but did not see one presenter use StarOffice and only a handful use HTML. Everyone seemed to use PowerPoint.

      Everyone got the CD-ROM pack with Solaris x86, Oracle, J2ME stuff, and _StarOffice_. It would have been nice to see StarOffice used by anyone giving a talk...

      --
      +++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
    4. Re:Just out of curiosity... by dagnabit · · Score: 3, Informative

      I work for Sun in the Cobalt Server Appliances group. I personally run StarOffice on my RH7.1 laptop for doing presentations for customers, etc. It is not _mandatory_ for Sun employees to use StarOffice, but most do. It's the only suite that Sun's internal IT group supports. So people who choose M$ Office are on their own for support. Also, Netscape is Sun's "official" browser and email program. If you read your mail with Outlook, etc, you're on your own too...

    5. Re:Just out of curiosity... by purplemonkeydan · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They are supposed to use StarOffice and Solaris exclusively, but they don't.

      Some Sun sales guys came to my former company and gave us the salespitch for the Spaghetti .. sorry .. Serengeti line of servers.

      They were using Office 2000 on Windows 2000 on a Toshiba laptop. The sales guys mentioned that they were supposed to be using StarOffice, but they said it sucked.

      I guess being in Australia they weren't under as much scrutiny as the US operation, and could get away with stuff like that.

    6. Re:Just out of curiosity... by scrytch · · Score: 2

      Sales folks at Sun use MS Office all the time, especially powerpoint. It's not supported. In the office, many of them also run Lotus Notes on Ultra 10's with SunPCI boards running, you guessed it, Windows. Those particular desktops are supported. I worked for Sun doing internal support... where does your information come from?

      StarOffice is now what is used internally, though it's so slow that people only ever want to run it on a SunRay terminal with an E450 on the back end where it's all sitting in RAM anyway. It was hardly ever used before StarDivision was purchased, it definitely wasn't supported before then. The official Office suite at Sun before SO was Applix.

      --
      I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
  14. StarOffice/OpenOffice by andy_from_nc · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have to say OpenOffice despite all its greatness has introduced a very annoying new behavior that can't be turned off. It uses extended windows style quotes/etc even when authoring on linux in html. I use Open/Star office, but there is a lack of attention to detail in certain areas that kind of annoys me. That being said, I never am tempted to go back to M$.

  15. Tends towards MS Office - A good thing! by aliebrah · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With each release of Star/OpenOffice we're seeing something that more and more resembles MS Windows/Office. Most people here keep on saying that its a bad thing. I think otherwise.

    You'll Microsoft and Apple are slowly tending towards very similar UIs, case in point being Aqua and Luna - they're really similar now. This is because both companies are spending millions of R&D dollars to find out what the best user interface is for their users, and, surprise-surprise, this doesn't differ across platforms.

    That's why I see this trend in SO/OO as a good thing. It's tending towards a much more usable state now. Though, it still has to play catch-up with MS Office. In Office, even if I don't know how to do something, I can easily find out by clicking as few buttons or even some guesswork based on looking at icons/tooltips. SO/OO still has quite a ways to go before it reaches this kinda ease-of-use.

    I just hope that people understand why these office apps are all tending towards a similar UI. It's not Microsoft's UI, or anyone elses for that matter, its just the one that works, and that's what's important.

  16. Re:TOC??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yes it does, Insert->Indexes->Indexes

  17. Re:A good start by funky+womble · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Works fine on Windows on my laptop (pentium MMX, 96mb). It normally pre-loads from the startup group (like MSOffice does) - once this is done the time to open a new document is about the same in each. .doc and .xls support seems good, and can be set as default (makes it easier to work with MSOffice users on a network).

  18. One year of OpenOffice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    OK, presumably they're talking about the wait-time for the damned thing to load. Has anyone actually gotten around to using it yet?

    1. Re:One year of OpenOffice by SCHecklerX · · Score: 2

      heh.

      It does take awhile to load the first time. but if you have enough memory (I run with 256 here, but also have mozilla, pronto, several other things running all the time), it loads pretty quickly on successive loads.

      My resume was done in staroffice.

  19. You should be ashamed... by Patoski · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wonder if everyone would be yucking it up and joking so much if this letter was sent to the FSF? I dislike MS as much as the next geek but making wise cracks about this is pretty low and tasteless. I wonder if you would mind telling that joke in front of the affected people's familes? If the thought of that makes you uncomfortable then you know you shouldn't say it in the first place. If it doesn't bother you then any words would be air better used elsewhere than talking to you...

    -Pato

    --
    G. Washington on Government "it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
    1. Re:You should be ashamed... by BlowCat · · Score: 2
      You probably didn't check the CNN link. "FSF office" would not have the second meaning, unlike "Microsoft office". Still I would expect some jokes to appear.

      Regarding "the affected people's familes". You still have "better" chances to be killed by a shark than by anthrax (if you live in the United States; it may be different in Afghanistan). Anthrax is just another scare made up by the media, just like sharks, evil Gary Condit etc. Soon it will be forgotten. I would avoid jokes about sharks in presence of people whose relatives were killed by sharks. I would avoid jokes about anthrax in front of people who lost their loved ones from that disease. Still it doesn't make those jokes inappropriate on a site for computer geeks from all over the world.

    2. Re:You should be ashamed... by Roofus · · Score: 2


      I hadn't bothered to read your post until now. But after reading it and doing some soul searching, I've come up with a thought....

      Go fuck youself.

  20. Mac support dropped? Why? by A_Non_Moose · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What was the reason for dropping mac support, does anyone know?

    I, for one was looking forward to Star/Open Office 6 for the mac. (drooling for it more like it).

    It just seems a trifle silly, really, if you think about it.
    Everyone that wants an alternative to Microsoft's Office products, but still need the compatability with it.
    I'll concede that the Mac has a smaller market share, but, you gotta admit that it has a more "vocal minority" (kind of reminds me of /. in a way).

    Add to the above thought, that, it is NO secret that Sun's CEO released S.O. free to tweak Microsoft's CEO's nose. (figurativly, of course).

    So, If you see where I am coming from it does not make sense.

    heck, I platform hop enough not only to keep up with the tech, but sometimes the politics of distros, tools and apps.

    Look at the screenshots and tell me that this would not look good under aqua, and run under osX.1 really nice.

    I suppose I understood a little in the 10.0.X days becuse a lot of developers and programmers were griping (rightfully so) about the APIs not being coherent and up to spec/snuff.

    But now, seems silly.

    Help me understand.

    Moose.

    --
    Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
  21. ApplixWare is a good alternative, too by PoiBoy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Although it's not free, I use ApplixWare 5.0 as my main office suite. My experience with StarOffice is that it tries to be too much like M$ Office. I just want a simple, intuitive app. to do word processing, spreadsheeting, drawing, etc. Unfortunately I still haven't seen anything with perfect M$ Office compatibility, so once in a while I've still got to use a Windoze machine.

    --
    Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
  22. Open Office has a marketing project. by Futurepower(tm) · · Score: 4, Interesting


    Wow! Open Office has a Marketing project too!

    Even though open source projects don't try to make money, there is still a marketing function. Marketing is creating communication between the project and prospective users. Most projects ignore this requirement; some die as a result of not communicating.


    Secrecy corrupts democracy: What should be the Response to Violence?

    --
    Bush's education improvements were
  23. Concerns about Mac OS X version by Tachys · · Score: 2

    I was looking at the what still needs to be done page for Mac OS X One thing it talked about was getting the setup program to work. I have a simple solution for that, don't have the setup program on the Mac.

    Mac users HATE installers, so what do you do instead? Well I download the file unstuff it. What is unstuffed is an OpenOffice folder with all the OpenOffice programs in it ready to go. It is in effect installed I can move that folder anywhere I want. Uninstalling? I just grab that folder and throw it in the trash can and empty trash. There it is uninstalled. I can do this with the Mac version of MS Office.

    I am not a programmer but one thing I could do is create the OpenOffice interface on Mac OS X using the Apple's Interface Builder would this help the porting effort at all?

  24. Re:TOC??? by SCHecklerX · · Score: 2

    Yes, and it does a very nice job of it too. No fighting the word processor to make it look the way you want it like you have to with word. The implementation is very clean and easy to use as well.

  25. Re:No linux support by SCHecklerX · · Score: 2

    did you read the installation manual (PDF)? Apparently not.

    Page 9, installation types, network installation.

  26. Re:Mac support dropped? Why? by sabi · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Because Sun cares zip for the Mac. When Sun did anything decent for the Mac, such as their Tcl implementation, their horrendous JDK 1.0 implementation, or their abortive efforts at re-porting StarOffice, it was either because it was historical, or because it was a checklist-item soon to ba abandoned.

    Considering how they're working to oppose Microsoft in platform (Java) and office suite (StarOffice/OpenOffice) dominance, it's just crazy that they don't support the only other currently viable desktop platform. They can't expect everyone to use Solaris, after having put next to no work into improving its usability (CDE? GNOME? uh, no, certainly not in their current state.).

    Sun just fired Lee Ann Rucker, who worked for Sun at Apple on the OS X Java implementation, in particular the Aqua Look & Feel for Swing, and was doing an incredible job. Check out recent messages on Apple's java-dev mailing list for more. I'm still stunned - I hope Apple is able to hire Lee Ann directly.

  27. Re:No linux support by big.ears · · Score: 3, Informative

    Don't you hate it when you embarrass yourself and all someone can say is RTFM? I'm doing this from memory, so I might be wrong about a few details. You have to do a "network" installation: as root, execute the downloaded binary with -net option (...or was it \net) and put it, e.g., in /usr/local/staroffice. Then, as a user, run /usr/local/staroffice/soffice and it will do a user installation (it uses about a megabyte or so.)

  28. Compile time? by green+pizza · · Score: 2

    Some friends and I compiled OpenOffice many months ago on a PII-450. As I recall, the actual compile time (not including the hours spent collecting required libraries, etc) was over 20 hours and required mad amounts of ram and disk.

    That said, how is compile time with OpenOffice these days and with modern 1-2 GHz CPUs?

    How often is it built?

    1. Re:Compile time? by jmichaelg · · Score: 2

      By compiling, I'm presuming you mean "screw j-code interpreters - we're going native mode?"

      If that's what you meant, what was the payoff? How much faster did office run natively rather than as an interpreted program?

      With the cost of RAM being cheaper than shipping charges (unless you buy from Crucial), compiling is one of the perfect applications for RAM disks. It's hard to beat seek time = zero and latency = zero. You don't care about power losses because the only thing in the ram disk is scratch files but boy... does it speed up compiles.

  29. Hehe by tcc · · Score: 2

    Sorry for being macho but....

    > yes, it prints, spellchecks and has online help.

    ...But it doesn't SUCK, so why do you think everybody is still all over MS Office? :)

    --
    --- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
  30. Not very realistic by crucini · · Score: 2

    Those of us who understand why .doc is not an appropriate format for data interchange are in the distinct minority. If we demand that others burden themselves with extra steps in order to communicate with us, we will be perceived as handicapped and possibly excluded from some discussions. Like it or not, .doc is dominant in the business world. To succeed in that world, we have to deal gracefully with .doc.

  31. This is open source, so what do you do? by Moritz+Moeller+-+Her · · Score: 2

    You contact the authors at openoffice.org, report a bug and tell them that this behaviour is crap and that it should be corrected.

    Bring it to their attention! I also reported some bugs to them and the Stardivision/Sun folks are nice and responsive.

    There are two ways:



    You don't have to be a programmer to contribute!
    --
    Moritz
  32. Re:Mac support dropped? Why? by A_Non_Moose · · Score: 2

    I don't know why this reply got modded down, especially if there is some element of truth to it (seems like there is) even from an AC.

    StarOffice actualy uses a proprietary widget system. This would need to be modified to provide Aqua look-n-feel, which is a load of additional work, or it would end up looking just like Windows.

    I don't see this as being too much of a problem.
    Did "we" or did "we" not just go thru this with Netscape 6? Using an Aqua "skin" (a no-no, IIRC) vs using the actual UI elements, calls and API's?

    It seems like Apple would actually *help* if there were a similar incident...use the same tactic, make an aqua skin, get griped at and then accept an offer for help...help us help ourselves in a rather tactical way.

    Unix users might forgive a Windows-clone interface, but Mac users would just refuse unless there was a gun to their head.

    Humm, I see your point. However if the above "skin" implementation were tried, I/"we" might have to put up with it for a while, if at all.
    The transition from os9's interface to aqua brought about griping, change, redesign or outright tossing of elements of all kinds.
    (I *liked* the single window mode, kept the annoying popups out of sight and kept my occasional pr0n/risquee picture surfing hidden from view of kid/whoever was watching)

    And, as I said before, I platform hop quite a lot, so, I would notice, but it would bother me less than most, IMO. Look at the Virtual PC users, for instance. As soon as VPC is out of beta for X, the best (and worst, mebbe) of 3 worlds will be there. (OS X/9 and win9X/2k/xp?).

    There's also supposedly some huge issues with Apple's GCC compiler.

    Ok, this I could see (always surprises with compilers that have had heavy mods/tweaks to run and interface well with the OS and apps).
    But even the source code can be tweaked or the makefile. Take the ffmpeg.component (works great, BTW, picture is perfect...sound is off, tho... go to divx.jamby.net, have a peek. OS X.1 recommended). As I understand it the cc calls had to be replaced with the gcc calls...worked perfect after that. Agreed, it is an issue, but one that is easily taken care of (ok, I'm a unix geek, mac/pc/*nix user on a daily basis, so I am a bad example compared to the X neophyte... I'm sure there is a way to pass these things to the terminal to run a scrips of the ./configure, make, make install and dump a folder on the users desktop, sorta a unix/mac ease of use melding).

    Appreciate the replys.

    Thanks,

    Moose

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