Interesting Article - Linux users going back to $M

[Lynn David Newton]

  Alan> Install OpenOffice.org 1.0. No command line
  Alan> required. It has yet to crash on me. ...

Maybe you can give me a hint what I did wrong then.

For reference, my experience with Windows goes back
about three months, with Unix about 20 years. I got
VMware (for my RH 7.2 machine) and installed XP Pro on
it, and all sorts of software goodies: Office,
Developer, and Macromedia Studio MX. (Got it all for
practically nothing, so why not?) Installation was the
easiest thing I've ever done on a computer, and it's
all worked flawlessly ever since, even if there are
some things that as a Unix bigot I find annoying.

As for OpenOffice: I downloaded the package with the
intent of replacing StarOffice -- not that I'll really
need either one now that I've got MS Office. I unwound
it and found an enormous number of files in the
directory with nothing obvious to run or read. So I
picked one that looked to me like it might be the
install script and ran it. It seemed to sort of
install.

When I tried to run it, it wouldn't let me start
without running me through the third degree. The first
thing it wanted to know was about my address book
format. I have no intention of using this beast for
email. I've used XEmacs VM for email for many years,
the absolute best email package I've ever seen, and I
use the BBDB (Big Brother DataBase) rolodex database
for addresses, and have for at least 10 years.

OpenOffice wouldn't let me ignore the question. When I
tried it hung my system so hard I couldn't even get to
a console and had to press the button and do a shock
reboot.

The second time I came to that question I didn't know
what the right answer to the question was, so I think I
accepted whatever was the default, even though I don't
have an address book of any other type on my system.
Somehow I got through to the main startup page. I tried
to open the word processor, but couldn't type a single
character. Once again my system hung so hard I had to
reboot again.

When I booted again I couldn't get OpenOffice off my
system fast enough. Fortunately, I hadn't gotten rid of
StarOffice yet.

As for requiring a command line to install something:
What's the big deal about that? I prefer it that way.
At least then you can see what's going on.

-- 
Lynn David Newton
Phoenix, AZ