*BSD News Article 88858


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From: etorwi@eto.ericsson.se (Wiker, Raymond)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: SALE!!SALE!!!
Date: 03 Feb 1997 16:14:07 +0100
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jheinrich@somewhere.ca.us (J. Heinrich) writes:
>
> On 01 Feb 1997 17:10:51 +0100, etorwi@eto.ericsson.se (Wiker, Raymond)
> wrote:
> 
> >jheinrich@somewhere.ca.us (J. Heinrich) writes:
> >> 
> >> Those that need to use word processors, spreadsheets, databases et al
> >> in addition to running unix servers.
> >
> >	Interesting... are you implying that Microsoft Word (to take
> >one example) is an acceptable word processor? (Easy shot, I know...)
> 
> I'm stating it outright:  MS Word more than satisfies my needs (and
> apparently a sizeable percentage of the general population as well) in
> a word processor.  If there is a word processor for FreeBSD that you
> feel is superior, by all means please share this well-kept secret.

	Unfair! I _should_ be allowed to do a little bit of MS-bashing
on a FreeBSD newsgroup!

	The tools I'm using are TeX/LaTeX and SGML, from XEmacs. I
have also used FrameMaker, which I'm more happy with than MSWord, but
it's still not something that I'd be happy to use exclusively.

> >	There are free word-processing and database packages for Unix
> >platforms that are more than acceptable.
> 
> For some people.  Superior to the feature-packed, easy-to-use Windows
> programs of today?  I doubt it.

	Depends on your hangups... I have had to do some editing on
large documents (> 80 pages) in MS-Word, and that was *not* a
pleasure. I will agree that it's feature-packed, but most of the
features are of zero interest to me. Other features that I would
really like to have are simply not there, including a well-documented
document format (preferably SGML). This is actually important;
documents written in Word are worthless without a word processor that
understands MicroSoft's proprietary format, which may change with time
(has done so a number of times already...)

> Don't get me wrong here, I like FreeBSD.  I use it for Inet (and
> Intranet) server functions that NT just isn't up to speed on yet (FTP,
> SMTP, NNTP, etc.).
> 
> I just think that WinNT (and sometimes 95 as well) makes a better
> workstation for everyday tasks like document creation and financial
> analysis.  I use the tool that works best for me on a given task.  I
> think NT and FreeBSD complement each other well.

	You're right, of course, to use the the tools that you feel
are the most appropriate. For me, that means avoiding MicroSoft
products. Don't like them, don't trust them.

	/Raymond.