Free Software

[GFritsch]

Has anybody heard of OpenOffice.org? They offer a free office suite program that appears to be very similar to Microsoft in look and features. The download took about 45 mins and seems to work very well.



Here is the download page http://www.openoffice.org/



Here is a page describing features http://www.openoffice.org/product/



There is no charge to download the program, but they ask for a donation.



Anybody use this, or heard of it?



Thanks,

Greg

 

[PRyker]

Cool isn't it? And it will open files created in Microsoft office as well. OpenOffice is developed in a collaborative effort by anyone who wants to get involved. The source code is open to all who would like to see it or modify it. Ask Microsoft to do that, HA, not in your wildest dreams. It is licensed under the GPL and LGPL licenses which basically means it is free.



It has been around for a while and runs on UNIX variants such as Linux, FreeBSD and MAC (Yes, it is UNIX based now). Being in the computer indusrty now for 8 years and managing a team of UNIX developers has opened my eyes to the world of Linux and other UNIX variants. I run a Linux operating system at home to play. You would be surprised at the amount of free and powerful software available on the net.



Have fun!!

 

[Eventer]

Why Pay the Microsoft Tax?

I have been using OpenOffice Write and Calc (on Linux and "Windoze") for over a year now. I am very happy with the product and recommend it to anyone who is looking for an alternative to MS products.



I have never had any issues with compatibility with MS Office files, although any VB macros will not work under Linux for obvious reasons.



Enjoy!

 

[jkalchik]

Compatibility is generally pretty good, although there is a feature in M$ Excel that doesn't exist in OpenOffice's spreadsheet, "Data/Text to Columns. " This is the sole reason I haven't converted to either OpenOffice (or StarOffice) whole hog. I've heard that most of the compatibility problems revolve around embedded Visual Basic scripts.



And before anybody says paste it into a text document, import it, copy it, etc. , no. Not going there.

 

[wmorden]

... and if you think that is good... check out www.gimp.org for the freeware version of an adobe photoshop type software... I found it a few days ago and so far it seems pretty powerful. Have fun.

 

[Ol'TrailDog]

Yep, I run Linux at home and use openoffice. However, my primary word processor is LyX. I've been using it since around 95. Sadly, I've missed paying for all the Windows upgrades and new fangled doodaws, e. g. 98, 2K, ME, and now, tah dah XP. :-laf :-laf :-laf

 

[GFritsch]

... and if you think that is good... check out www.gimp.org for the freeware version of an adobe photoshop type software... I found it a few days ago and so far it seems pretty powerful. Have fun.





Thanks for the link. After going to the website though I don't believe I am computer literate enough to load the software. The install instructions required things I have never heard of. I've got a lot to learn about this stuff.

 

[fest3er]

I've been using OO on Linux for a couple years now. It does everything I need. All DHRA publications (rule books, ID cards, informational tri-folds, etc. ) I've printed have been laid out and printed using OO. It has a built-in PDF writer among its many features.



Like all software, it isn't perfect. But I haven't yet had the latest versions crash on me. The Windows version of OO is just as good. An additional benefit, for bit-heads like me, is that the OO files are ZIP archives. You can unzip the file into a directory, write scripts to modify the files (or edit them using a text editor) and re-zip them; this is sometimes easier and quicker than using the GUI. For instance, I wanted to change some business card backgrounds; it was quicker to unzip, change the images and rezip than using the GUI to change the images one at a time.



And, as someone else pointed out, the GIMP is a very good image processing program. I've done all the DHRA image processing using the GIMP; I've used it to create several of the banner ads (GIF, JPEG and animated GIF) onteh DHRA website. Again, the Windows version of GIMP is just as good.



Of course, the big drawback to this software is that they're completely free; they're not for people who are uncomfortable using stuff they haven't paid for. Support for problems you might encounter usually involves downloading a newer version. Probability is very high that the problem you've found has already been fixed!



N

 

[fest3er]

... Thanks for the link. After going to the website though I don't believe I am computer literate enough to load the software. The install instructions required things I have never heard of. I've got a lot to learn about this stuff.

Installation on windows is really trivial. The latest Windows version is a self-extracting archive.

• download the . ZIP file to C:\windows\temp
• run Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\windows\temp and execute the downloaded file (program)to extract the files; if it asks, put the files in a directory in C:\windows\temp
• using Windows Explorer again, navigate to the directory (folder) where the files were extracted, and double-click setup (setup. exe)

That's all. Once setup finishes, OO is installed and ready to use.



One caveat: the download is very large, around 70MB; if you don't have broadband, ask a friend who does to DL it for you and burn it on a CD.



N

 

[GFritsch]

I am sure your explanation is easily understood by most, but I am truly lost unless it is very simple language. Here is the install instructions:



Stable version (2. 0. x)



* Recent version of pkg-config is needed and you can grab them at http://www.freedesktop.org/software/pkgconfig/

* GTK+ 2. 2. 2 or newer (Gimp Toolkit). The GIMP toolkit can be found at ftp://ftp.gimp.org/pub/gtk/

GTK+-2. 2 depends also on recent versions of:

o GLib

o Pango

o ATK and you can download them from ftp://ftp.gimp.org/

* PangoFT2 a pango backend that uses FreeType2 (Make sure you have FreeType2 installed before installing Pango). Downloads can be found at http://www.freetype.org/

* libart2 grab the module from libart_lgpl on the GNOME CVS or get the tarball at ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/libart_lgpl/



Wow-- If the software is anything like this I'll will be lost.



Thanks for your help, but I don't even know what a zip file is.

 

[Bob Wagner]

Greg, thank you for the post, I downloaded the product and its first class.



Thanks

 

[fest3er]

I am sure your explanation is easily understood by most, but I am truly lost unless it is very simple language. Here is the install instructions:



Stable version (2. 0. x)



* Recent version of pkg-config is needed and you can grab them at http://www.freedesktop.org/software/pkgconfig/

* GTK+ 2. 2. 2 or newer (Gimp Toolkit). The GIMP toolkit can be found at ftp://ftp.gimp.org/pub/gtk/ ...



Thanks for your help, but I don't even know what a zip file is.

Hmmm. I assumed you were using Windows, like the majority of folks. Which OS *are* you using? What you quoted above looks to be what's required for compiling the GIMP on Linux. To use GIMP on Windows, you need only download two install programs (three if you want to include the help package). For Linux, there are a few pre-built install packages available for several distributions; there're also BSD and MacOS X versions available. Besides, I should think most Linux distributions (and BSD) already include the GIMP.



If you are using Windows, go to http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/ to see what you need to download (two packages to run it). If Linux, check your distribution; if GIMP isn't there, check http://www.gimp.org/unix/ for possible pre-compiled packages. Otherwise, you will be stuck compiling it yourself.



N

 

[GFritsch]

Hmmm. I assumed you were using Windows, like the majority of folks. Which OS *are* you using? What you quoted above looks to be what's required for compiling the GIMP on Linux. To use GIMP on Windows, you need only download two install programs (three if you want to include the help package). For Linux, there are a few pre-built install packages available for several distributions; there're also BSD and MacOS X versions available. Besides, I should think most Linux distributions (and BSD) already include the GIMP.



If you are using Windows, go to http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/ to see what you need to download (two packages to run it). If Linux, check your distribution; if GIMP isn't there, check http://www.gimp.org/unix/ for possible pre-compiled packages. Otherwise, you will be stuck compiling it yourself.



N

My computer is a laptop pc that uses windows. I tried different quick links asociated with the website, but was quickly outwitted. Your posts show a ease with computer language that I have never heard. I have learned the basic function of some programs like WORD because I have limited training from work.



Don't know what Linux is or compillers, or the rest. Guess when it comes to computers I know more about trucks.



Working as a construction Superintendent I know about building and dealing with people-- but I am still learning the very basic of computers.



Thanks again