Working in a small store, using my own computer as a hobby (employer/owner is computer-terrified) I use a Linux box with Mandrake 8.1 and StarOffice, with OpenOffice loaded, printing drawings, spreadsheets, and text to an HP OfficeJet600. All files over 2 months old were created in SO on a Windows box. Going to Linux/SO has worked ok, except every time I start the computer it throws the HP into an error mode, requiring re-power and reset time/date. Linux/OO requires addtional step of choosing which file system, SO or OO to save in. SO has more fonts and on-screen helps than does OO. If I had started in OO on the Windows machine, my perceptions may have been reversed, but for now going from Windows to Linux is easier when staying with SO and SO offers more to the user. Further info: Had to manually change file permissions upon loading old files into Linux, Printing needs manually allowing "anonymous user" in xpp. I am just half a notch above a JoeSixpack in computer literacy
In the 70's I read a book, in English, by two Soviet economists demonstrating why a rigidly planned economy couldn't work - The leadership got the message; Gorbachev lived it. Hence his reforms. Point is, the change came from inside, from their knowledge of failure. That the reforms went further than the last Soviet establishment intended was an accident of history, perhaps unavoidable.
I used one 'til I was 40, then bought an HP-45. Slipsticks don't mislead users about accuracy - if you multiply x.x by y.yy, your answer is accurate to z.z not z.zz - limited by the least accurate number you start with. I bought the 45 'cause I kept getting the decimal place wrong.
In '89 I was working as a process engineer, making a static model of a pulp mill in a spreadsheet. I wanted to check a calculation before entering it - so I grabbed my HP15 - and found that its battery had died. I had my K&E at work - brought in to show a young person how it worked - so I grabbed that and verified my calculation. Wish I had a picture of that - sitting in front of a computer with the HP on desk and the 'stick in use.
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Working in a small store, using my own computer as a hobby (employer/owner is computer-terrified) I use a Linux box with Mandrake 8.1 and StarOffice, with OpenOffice loaded, printing drawings, spreadsheets, and text to an HP OfficeJet600. All files over 2 months old were created in SO on a Windows box. Going to Linux/SO has worked ok, except every time I start the computer it throws the HP into an error mode, requiring re-power and reset time/date. Linux/OO requires addtional step of choosing which file system, SO or OO to save in. SO has more fonts and on-screen helps than does OO. If I had started in OO on the Windows machine, my perceptions may have been reversed, but for now going from Windows to Linux is easier when staying with SO and SO offers more to the user. Further info: Had to manually change file permissions upon loading old files into Linux, Printing needs manually allowing "anonymous user" in xpp. I am just half a notch above a JoeSixpack in computer literacy
In the 70's I read a book, in English, by two Soviet economists demonstrating why a rigidly planned economy couldn't work - The leadership got the message; Gorbachev lived it. Hence his reforms. Point is, the change came from inside, from their knowledge of failure. That the reforms went further than the last Soviet establishment intended was an accident of history, perhaps unavoidable.
I used one 'til I was 40, then bought an HP-45. Slipsticks don't mislead users about accuracy - if you multiply x.x by y.yy, your answer is accurate to z.z not z.zz - limited by the least accurate number you start with. I bought the 45 'cause I kept getting the decimal place wrong. In '89 I was working as a process engineer, making a static model of a pulp mill in a spreadsheet. I wanted to check a calculation before entering it - so I grabbed my HP15 - and found that its battery had died. I had my K&E at work - brought in to show a young person how it worked - so I grabbed that and verified my calculation. Wish I had a picture of that - sitting in front of a computer with the HP on desk and the 'stick in use.