Open Office Excel Equivalent

Stuff breaks. Life is dangerous. So what's new? FOSS would have the same issues as soon as its market share got into double digits.

I do my own support on both systems, and Windows is _far_ easier. Not to mention that if I have a hardware incompatibility on a preloaded system, it's the retailer's problem, not mine. My time's valuable, so futzing around with computers that won't do what they're supposed to gets expensive.

Ah.

So you hate them. So what? There's not a lot of content to that, and we already guessed it anyway. Besides, you could say the same about all the zillion GUI toolkits for Linux.

Now where's the guy offstage with the shepherd's crook?

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Thanks, didn't work but with version 3 it now does.

Obviously there are issues in the design review process. That's what it usually boils down to.

Don't know what you mean. And yes, I am a church goer :-)

Instead he was in the pockets of ... well, let's not go there.

I do not see that at clients, and I get around a lot. Number of Linux boxes: One. And that one is only used for IC simulation runs. Number of Windows boxes: Hundreds. Those are used for everything else.

No, you said they were "flying off the shelves". Well, then where did they go?

My hunch is that they sold more when it was Windows. I doubt Walmart can be intimidated by anyone, not even MS.

There is only one explanation: With MS they probably made more profit. That's the American way.

Yup. You do not have to shop there, you have choices. So does Walmart management. It's the American way.

Where did I say I want to? Fact is, sometimes one has to. Other times we had a choice and I was one of the drivers behind a product design decision where we went with QNX instead of Windows-CE. So yes, I did personally p..s off some folks from Redmond.

Classic case of quoting out of context. I am not worried because right now there is a serious shortage of analog folks. There will be for decades to come, and this includes BRIC. But I do mentor people from the US, Brazil and India at times because one day people like me will be in a nursing home or gone from the earth. I feel we have an obligation to mentor. Question: How much of your time do you devote to mentoring?

Things can change at the end of 2012, there is always hope :-)

No gloating, I merely stated a fact.

Much of the software I use here is EoL almost since the days I proposed to my sweetheart. I still use the same software and still have the same wife :-)

T'is one reason I use XP. Not issues. You plug it in and it worketh.

Then how come I have so often heard "I can't use this USB device because I am using Linux" and never heard it from a Windows user? Not once. Strange, huh?

I run lots of legacy hardware and it all works just fine. Stuff back to the 80's. Because I need to.

Wow, so all of a sudden you trust the Redmond guys with security? I don't, I use other measures to secure my PC. Zero viruses, ever. There were, of course, attempts to infect mys systems but thwarted. The toughest case was in a company where just about anyone's PC became infected except one. Mine :-)

So why does it work under Windows and not under Linux? Obviously Linux-compatibility ain't so important to make a profit. Windows-compatibility is. Without it the manufacturer would be toast.

Not in the US, and only schools. Big deal.

Seems you didn't really read it. Silicon Valley is in the US, at least it was last time I looked. And President Obama isn't King of England, last time I checked.

Quote "The Largo IT focus on users would make their system successful no matter what operating system they ran it on, but the use of Linux and thin clients is what makes it cost-effective, even though Largo has now replaced its original, super-cheap thin clients with brand-new Hewlett-Packard units that cost $625 apiece"

I did better than that. _Much_ better, by about 30%. Despite the fact that I only bought one. Oh, and this included the Windows XP license.

Quote "Networked printing in Linux is still sloppy" ... umm, yeah. Network printing works without any hitch in this here office. As long as I do not ignore the low toner wanrnings for too long.

Quote "He says it took a lot of the pain out of trying to get ALSA and ESD and other Linux sound systems to work at the same time". See what I mean? Audio doesn't matter much but when the PC-driven spectrum analyzer freezes up that is a concern.

That analyzer is an example. Yes, after some time the manufacturer came out with a Linux API manual and some routines. But AFAIU then you sit there and have to program. They are very open but it looks like for Linux you are pretty much on your own. I simply do not have time for that. For Windows I ran their installer and had a fully running system less than 60 seconds later. Maybe it runs in a VM on Linux, maybe ... if it jibes with the heavy USB traffic.

Nonsense. I am not a fan of Windows at all. It has never reached the robustness of DOS and will probably never reach the robustness of QNX either. But most business people must use it.

I'd appreciate a nicer tone here. In older versions it didn't stick, in V3 it seems to like Dennis pointed out (and he did so without using insults).

The smart thing would have been: Let it default to the same format as last time unless the user sets a hard default.

The majority will leave whatever default came with the software. Unless you live in a stone age village you should have seen that dreaded uptick in the quantity of *docx files.

Like what? And here I mean stuff people _have_ on their PCs.

Doesn't make any difference. Businesses predominantly use MS-Office and non-biz users take whatever came with their PC. Which is usually also MS-Office in lesser edition or MS-Works.

They'd have to revive Vikings and rule part of the world :-)

BTW, all Norwegians I communicate with use ... Windows. Same for companies there. Also, your information appears to be incorrect or obsolete:

Quote "The application can be downloaded from the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (NDI) website (see resources section). It downloads in a word format."

Hint: NDI is a Norwegian _government_ agency.

So? Do they rule the world or at least a hemisphere?

You wish for that, and so do I. But it ain't heppening. Unfortunately the archive format du jour is PDF. As evidenced by nearly all published datasheets to date.

T'is what zip was invented for :-)

AFAIK they don't anymore, at least not over there. That's what germans told me, that their EULAs have become unenforceable. It was mostly about bundled software where MS opined that the rights to it expire when the PC expires, and the court opined otherwise.

Just upgrade to MS Office 2010 and be done with it.

Give a little back to the world you claim your skills were a part of building.

Anyone calling you intelligent is in the act of attempting to pull a cunning stunt.

Your retarded use of the dollar sign proves that beyond doubt.

Do you have a cite for that?

Looks like that's not true:

"Will Microsoft use activation to force me to upgrade? In other words, will Microsoft ever stop giving out activation codes for any of the products that require activation?

No, Microsoft will not use activation as a tool to force people to upgrade. Activation is merely an anti-piracy tool, nothing else.

Microsoft will also support the activation of Windows XP throughout its life and will likely provide an update that turns activation off at the end of the product's lifecycle so users would no longer be required to activate the product."

That's OK. I remember when DOD insisted on POSIX compatibility for a few years.

?-)

The French police are idiots. Mainly for choosing Ubuntu, when it is maintained by immature dolts. There is no other explanation for this Unity crap and how it got shoehorn added to what was once a decent distro.

I'm using Excel on my laptop, and OpenOffice on my desktop. There's no important difference, as far as I can tell. Half the time I'm just handling lists, the other half I'm doing calculations that're repeated in case after case. Either does any simple job well.