[KLUG Members] Re: Calling all Linux novices: -- MS Office on non-Windows platforms ...

[Bryan J. Smith]

Quoting "Robert G. Brown" <bob@acm.org>:
> It's not clear to me that "People" are on this mailing list.

I've heard that exact statement off-list, and indirectly get that others here
have to deal with that same attitude.

> who said "mission critical" anything is going to reside in Access?

I used quotes didn't I?  ;-p

> By far the greatest thing about running MS Office on Linux is that
> when I'm talking to someone about Linux and they ask a question
> like "Does Office run on Linux", I can say "yes", and CHANGE THE
> SUBJECT, probably back to whatever I was saying in the first place.
> I would interpret the question as part of the users need for that
> general kind of software.

Well, with Crossover Office, it is now there.  And with distros like Xandros, it
comes out-of-the-box (along with an NTFS resizer right in the installer).

But that doesn't remove the sheer "technical problem" plaguing most corporations.

> I share your sentiments about a prospective port of MS Office to
> Linux, the question being more an indication of the relative technical
> ignorance of the questioner, both in terms of what it really takes to run
> Office, and what Linux (or office software already on Linux) can do.

Pretty much all MS code is byte endian and alignment ignorant.  Just ask the
guys at Microsoft who do the porting MacOS.  E.g., MS Word for Windows documents
will usually go to Windows fine, but aren't readable coming back from MacOS to
Windows.  I have personally gone into several a companies where the
"publication" department is Mac, and they constantly complain about being able
to receive files, but not send them back to secretaries and others running
Windows, and that's why.

Then there are the countless, Win32-only interfaces with no Mac equivalents. 
For several versions, you couldn't even interchange Excel for Mac with Excel for
Windows.  MS IE for Mac doesn't read the great majority of "IE-only" sites
either.  In fact, Mozilla on Win32 will read a lot of, and even Mozilla on Mac
will a number of, "IE-only" sites that IE for Mac won't.

Lastly, Microsoft purposely puts looping "NOP" opcodes (i.e. no instruction) in
their Mac software.  This is done to make it run slower than on Windows.  Anyone
who has "illegally" dissassembled MS Office for Mac knows this, and it's not for
byte alignment reasons either.

Microsoft is even more unfriendly to Linux than Mac, so even if Linux is on
enough desktops to eventually warrant a port, Microsoft's #1 goal, just like on
Mac, will be to make it is inoperable with Windows users as possible.  Why?  To
move them back to Windows.

> Frankly, I'd like to see comments from anyone running MS Office on
> Linux or other non-MS platforms,

I used to know (circa 1998) a few Microsoft developers that did.  They have it
ported in-house.

> regarding how well it runs, based on your actual experience with it
> and whatever run-time environment you're using.
> I'm not interested in specualtion about how well it MIGHT run, or even
> articles are citations about it. If we have some actual experience and
> stories from people on this mailing list, it would be interesting, for
> a number of reasons.

Agreed.

Just remember what the original thread was regarding.  It was regarding the need
for an Open Source office suite to read all MS Office formats as good as
Microsoft.  He expected instant reverse engineering with the latest formats, not
recognizing the sheer effort required to do so.

Unlike Corel, who can license from Microsoft, Open Source efforts cannot.  And
unlike Samba, there is no "sniffing" of a network wire to be done so it's an
extremely tedious guessing and trial-n-error endeavor that takes numerous years.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith, E.I. (BSECE)       Contact Info:  http://thebs.org
[ http://thebs.org/files/resume/BryanJonSmith_certifications.pdf ]
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Microsoft states Linux's GPL is "viral" so I guess all the authors
in the US who require you to pay royalties to print their books
must be the digital "black plague."  Copyright is copyright and
the GPL prevents commercial use without a license from the holder.