Vic, I read the other day that IF you are running Firestarte (firewall) on Ubuntu the VPN software will not work until you specifically open a port for it. You probably know about that but JIC, I thought to toss this note in. Nice writeup BTW. I think too many folks get overly adamant on the issue without considering the issues real people can have. Larry On 3/28/07, vodhner@cox.net wrote: > > (Was: Re: Update on VMs under Linux?) > > Bill Lindley wrote: > > Why run MS Word97 when you can run OpenOffice? > > I don't run MS Word97 when I can run OpenOffice. > > OpenOffice is not a replacement for MS Word. They are two > different applications with limited compatibility. I use > OpenOffice when I can, and Word when I have to: mainly, > when I am involved in an exchange of Word documents that > won't render in OOo. > > It will be nice when ODF becomes commonly used. I'm trying > to promote it, but sometimes it's like trying to pay for things > in pa'angas instead of dollars. > > For example, one of my sons is a student in ASU's BS in Nursing > program. One of his courses provides Word templates for > submission of work; and requires totally rigorously precise > formatting in electronically submitted coursework. OOo (or > Word97 for that matter) is not an option here: no WYSIWTG > (What You See Is What Teacher Gets). He found Office 2007 > for Home and Student at CompUSA for $140, that's three > licenses. Not bad as a Cost of Not Flunking [TM]. Mom will > use the other two licenses, so the cost is about $50 per. > > This is equivalent to the strangle-hold that big textbook > publishers have on schools, but less expensive. > > If someone gives you a document with all sorts of graphics > interleaved with text, and MS-specific fonts laid out to fill pages > but not overflow, there's no way FOSS can fully break the MS > encryption and render that document accurately -- as illustrated > by the "behave like Word" sections of Microsoft's Office Open > (sic!) XML definition. > > Meanwhile, my wife is a Microsoft customer, pure and simple. > She works with it at work, she wants it on her desktop. She has > bigger fish to fry than trying to straddle two sets of applications. > > I am currently struggling with her new Vista laptop. Microsoft has > done it again: a Vista PC apparently won't share files with an XP > PC without installing special software on XP. This is apparently > just a trojan horse -- to install that software on XP, you have to > do the whole "genuine" thing first, which I'd managed to avoid > on the XP box to date. But she wants to share between her > desktop and her laptop, so fine, I'll risk a false-negative and cave > in to the "genuine" requirement. > > In the real world, Word is still Coin of the Realm. Hopefully the > hold will be loosened over the next 10 years, but don't count on > people who work *with* other people to give up Word very soon. > > And why else am I using Windows? Because I switched from > CentOS to Ubuntu, and my Cisco VPN client that I need for work > does not install on Ubuntu -- some header discrepancy that I can > probably fix with a little hacking, but haven't yet. Other VPN > solutions would be even more work to install. So I have to boot > over to Windows for VPN access. Just like many other apps, > this is something that works great *when* it works under Linux, > but Just Works [TM] under Windows. > > The old wide-eyed question, "why use Windows", gets a little > old for people who have to deal with other people and the > requirements of organizations whose primary focus does not > happen to be breaking the Microsoft monopoly. We should > promote open standards and products wherever possible, but > if someone is taking the trouble to dual-boot or use virtual > Windows under Linux, we should probably give their > intelligence the benefit of the doubt. > > Vic > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > -- Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. - Dr. Seuss