ZDNet: KDE 2.2.1 rivals Windows

[W. Wayne Liauh]

At the current version, Star Office is just not stable enough for 
businesses that rely on documents production for a living (such as law 
offices, etc).   OpenOffice is still in beta stage, but based on the 
feature list, I doubt version 6.0 will be good enough for law offices.

There are 48 basic functions in WordPerfect, thus, theoretically, if one 
can implement all these functions (which should not be too difficult), 
we will have a solid wordprocessor for law offices.  However, "direct" 
features alone are not enough.  One of the key elements of WordPerfect 
and MS Word is their macro capabilities. This is one of the major 
weaknesses of Linux office suites (though I am sure this should improve 
with time).  Of course, the infamous macro virus in MS Office is causing 
another type of problem.  This leaves WordPerfect almost the only choice 
for law offices if they care about security.

I am the technical editor for the book "WordPerfect for Linux Bible", 
and chaired an ABA interest group to study the use of Linux by lawyers. 
 I believe I know what I am talking about.  At the present time, one of 
our focuses is to convince Corel executives to put more effort on 
WordPerfect/Linux.  However, before the market for Linux improves (does 
anyone know when that's going to happen?), they are not going to do 
anything about it.  Another focus is to try to convince OO developers to 
add features that are critical to attorneys.  This effort also seems to 
be going nowhere.

That said, I still believe most businesses will be very happy with 
either StarOffice or KOffice.







Dusty wrote:

>WHAT?!?!?!?
>
>Star Office is as good as MS Office at every task I have ever needed.  What do you do with your MS Office that can not be done in StarOffice.  And Wordperfect has been available for Unix since before MS had a word processor!  Corel Office works great under Linux.  I was using Applixware as a fully intergrated office suite back when everyone else had seperate WordPerfect and Lotus.  So to say that Linux lacks an office suite shows ignorance.
>
>As for accounting software and vector drawing there are applications.  Check out www.thekompany.com.  They make Kapital a personal accounting program and Kivio a vector art program to name two off the top of my head.  I don't think you could run a business with Kapital, but a quick search revealed these financial applications that are designed to run a business though:
>http://sourceforge.net/projects/kontor/
>http://www.starnix.com/banal/
>http://www.sql-ledger.com/
>http://www.provenacct.com/
>http://www.appgen.com/products/accounting_small_business.html
>
>And for some other vector drawing applications check out these:
>http://sketch.sourceforge.net/
>http://sodipodi.sourceforge.net/
>http://www.koffice.org/kontour/
>http://www.gyve.org/
>
>Couldn't find much for linux legal software packages, but look at this:
>http://sourceforge.net/projects/lawoffice/
>http://www.legalcs.com/linux/
>http://www.legalfiles.com/techtalk.htm
>
>Is Linux everything, NO!!  Is KDE an execelent choice for the business desktop?  Definately.  It is stable, easy to use and has ALL of the tools that are typically required for business use.
>
>I think Linux is a better choice for business use, because it is cheaper, more stable, more robust, has ALL the tools typically required for business, is easier to maintain, and easier to control/protect the user.
>
>Dusty
>
>
>>For home use, I believe it is actually preferable to use KDE (2.2 and 
>>above) over Windows.  However, the lack of business applications (mainly 
>>office suite, accounting software and vector drawing programs) remains 
>>the main obstacle preventing Linux from being considered a viable 
>>desktop alternative.
>>
>>I know quite a few members at LUAU think very highly of 
>>StarOffice/OpenOffice; however, at least for law office applications, my 
>>own experience is, SO is still quite a  long way from being in the same 
>>league as MS Office and WordPerfect.  With regard to accounting 
>>software, I heard Gnucash is quite good, but, just like every other 
>>Linux project, it is starving from lack of financial support.
>>
>>
>>Warren Togami wrote:
>>
>>>http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2813695,00.html
>>>
>>>ZDNet: KDE 2.2.1 rivals Windows
>>>
>>>
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>>
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>
>So I asked my accountant, do I get an agriculture 
>exemption for my server farm?
>
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