Subject: Re: Is YDL/KDE ready for prime time?
From: nathan r. hruby (nhruby@arches.uga.edu)
Date: Mon Jan 21 2002 - 12:30:05 MST
On Mon, 2002-01-21 at 14:16, Bob Beaton wrote:
> Hi, folks.
>
> I'm trying to decide if the latest YDL/KDE is ready for production-mode
> office work. Basically, I'm a heavy Mac user who has relied on the MS-Office
> suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Entourage) for the vast majority of his
> office work. Since building about two dozen Mac-based Linux systems recently
> for server applications, I'm beginning to explore using YDL/KDE for my daily
> office work. So far, my experience has been less than trilling (although I
> absolutely love YDL for my nubus and pci server machines!).
>
I use Linux at home and have used it in the past for schoolwork for
almost 2 years. There have been great advances in the desktop linux
apps and such. Is it ready for prime time? Maybe not quite unless
you're a power user or occsionally willing to dig for answers and / or
file bug reports.
> I'd appreciate hearing some comments on the following issues. Please
> understand I'm using YDL 2.1 (latest KDE) on a G4/500-upgraded G3 B&W, 1 GB
> RAM (no virtual), and 36 Mb (1 GB swap) disk, with a full T1 connection.
>
> (1) Word Processing -- KWord application seem slow and limited compared to
> the latest MS-Word for normal document layouts. Does not convert large Word
> files as well as hoped. Is there a better alternative?
>
> (2) Spreadsheet -- KSpread is very, very slow and does not read (import)
> most of my MS-Excel spreadsheets. The Gnome spreadsheet seems much better at
> importing and much faster at sorting large (500 row, 30 col) simple
> spreadsheet pages. I have not explored the macro capabilities yet. Should I
> expect any disappointments?
>
> (3) Presentations -- KPresenter just doesn't cut it! It can't import any of
> my MS-Powerpoint files, which contain simple text and pictures (no fancy
> transition effects). Is there an alternative?
>
> (4) EMail -- KMail seems okay, just slower and more limited than
> MS-Entourage. I like its features for multiple email accounts on different
> servers, but the filter setup is cumbersome. Is there a better email app?
>
Several Suggestions:
- Get the laest version of the KDE *apps* (not just the core) you want
and evaluate those. There are allways improvments and KDE's dev rate is
quite quick for a project of it's magnitutde, esp. on the app level.
- Also look at the GNOME suite of apps. They are quite nice and work
well. I find that the KDE and Gnome apps dovetail nicely in feature
sets and I find myself using them back and forth to do specfic taks.
Except for Ximian Evolution. This email is typed with Evolution (on
x86, mind you) and it kicks ass, I love it. I like everything it does,
execpt the way it handles IMAP folders (eg: you need to open the Folder
window and select the imap account and auth yourself to the server
before it will present you with a tree to get to your inbox. I still
haven't found an IMAP client that I really *like* and doesn't feel like
the IMAP capibility is just glued onto the side of the pop functions.
this is a minor irk and if it's the biggest compaint I have, well then
WooHoo! It also doesn't synch with my visor, but I think that's an
issue with my pilot-link install more than Evolution)
- Look at OpenOffice / StarOffice. It's big and slow but it'll have a
lot more of the MS Office compatibilty you're looking for.
- You'll need to go back to MacOS and office for some stuff that these
apps just can't handle (It's like being a WordPerfect user... trust me
support oabout 20 die hard WP users - mac and win - They have problems)
-n
-- ...... nathan hruby - nhruby@arches.uga.edu computer support specialist department of drama and theatre http://www.drama.uga.edu/ ......
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