RE: MS troll

[DSA]

Yes that can be done, but remember that the customer has to be happy to do that. One customer I worked with recently had a turn over of several millions of dollars, all of it managed with macro driven excel spreadsheets, and they where extremely reluctant to change (They had unprotected internet access, and where exposed to outside attacks, I suggested Red hat based routing and firewall on an existing, but unused PC, but they felt better the devil they knew, and paid for Windows 2000 server to do the same thing!). Guess that’s why the OSTC is such a good idea, so that new users can see it ain’t so bad.   -----Original Message----- From: Jason Greenwood [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, 30 January 2003 5:14 p.m. To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: MS troll   Ok, I can understand MYOB, the stubbord bastards refuse to port to Linux but an open source program is the works to replicate its functionality from what I hear. Now, as for Excel, what about gnumeric?? I can open excel spreadsheets with it just fine....One Windows box (or a dual booter/vmware whateva) in an organisation/office is more than enough for those legacy apps, for the rest of the office, Linux should more than suffice IMHO. Regards, J DSA wrote:   -----Original Message-----       Now I'm not a bigot here, and I'm always ready to listen to other    points  of view, so lets hear what is "most missed' from linux from you/yourcustomer's point of view??     Most often cause of concern is that they already have existing Windowsbased software, such as MYOB, or Excel based spreadsheets. Quiterightly, if you had just purchased an upgrade for your MYOB package, youwould want a system that could use it.  Although you can open a word document in, for instance Kword, if youalready had MS Office installed, and your staff where comfortable usingit, why would install another package? If, however, a new business came to me for advice about installing abrand new OS and application suite, and they were un-encumbered withpreviously purchased application software, then I would suggest using,say Redhat with open|star|k office that comes freely bundled. After all,that's what I use for my business.