Re: SUMMARY: Linux and techwhirlers

[Kevin McLauchlan <KMcLauchlan -at- CHRYSALIS-ITS -dot- COM>]

Well!  Thanks for the update.  But now, the big
question...

Did you/will you use Linux and those tools as your
primary working environment, as a tech writer or
editor or whatever?

Also, how well do all of the mentioned items
co-exist?  Do you have to shut down one GUI or
Xwindows implementation in order to fire up another
when you want to go from your best wp to your best
vector draw program?

I'm definitely going to have to make some space
on my home PC.  Now, which should I dump?
NT Workstation 4, where I work, or Win95, where
I can use my joystick for flight-sim and can run
Grim Fandango...    hmm.

And then...  Red Hat? Caldera? Debian? SuSE?
Double-hmmm.
I suppose I'd learn more from SuSE, but I'd likely
have a working system much sooner with Red Hat
or Caldera?


Kevin McLauchlan
kmclauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com    (aka  kevinmcl -at- netrover -dot- com)
Techy writer, duffer skydiver, full-time unrepentant chocoholic

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Martin [SMTP:peterm -at- zeta -dot- com -dot- au]
> Sent: Thursday, April 22, 1999 8:28 PM
> To:   Kevin McLauchlan; TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      Re: SUMMARY: Linux and techwhirlers
>
> At 15:17 22/04/99 -0400, Kevin McLauchlan wrote:
> [snip]....
>
> >There are a couple or three "Office Suite" products -- for
> >example, KDE suite and Star Office -- which seem to be
> >shedding their odor of "Suite Junior".  They'd be quite
> >usable for anybody except real power-users of the MicroSloth
> >and Lotus products, who might miss some bells and whistles.
>
>
> >Gimp will do a good job with bitmaps.
> >
> >Vector-based drawing/illustration programs seem to be farther
> >back on the curve.
> >
> >DTP for graphic-intensive stuff is "on the cusp" -- some
> >contenders, but don't give up your day job (Quark).
> >
> >DTP for big docs...  well, a few have something in Beta, and
> >they DO toss around words like "frame"... but, ain't NUTHIN'
> >that can shine FrameMaker's shoes, let alone stand in for it in
> >a real working environment.  Even their proposed feature lists
> >leave out the heavy-duty functionality that persuades people
> >to pay most of a thousand bucks for FM.
> >
> >Sigh!
> >
> >My off-the-cuff estimation, based on what you folks have
> >said, what I found at various web sites, and what I've read in
> >the press, is that none of us could seriously expect to outfit
> >a Linux box and start being full-bore intermediate or senior
> >tech writers with it.
> >
> >The vacuum cleaner, the kitchen appliances and even the
> >Dremel (hobby) tools are available.  But downstairs in the
> >shop, there are no heavy-duty work-for-a-living tools that
> >would let you fix cars, build cabinets, re-work the plumbing, etc.
> >
> >There, I think I tortured that mixed metaphor to death, don't
> >you? We don't yet have what we'd want, to not only produce
> >stuff, but exchange work with professionals on other platforms.
> >
> >I dunno. The app producers (for Linux) seem to nod toward
> >input filters for graphics, with a *few* possibilities for each of
> >bitmap and vector. But, they don't do the same for text.
> >
> >If I can't accept Word and PM and FM and Quark and WP
> >files -- even if they are for earlier versions -- then how am
> >I supposed to interact with clients and with related professionals?
> >
>
> Er, perhaps you'd better check up on the fast-changing scene
> again fairly soon. A friend of mine recently found a recent
> version of Word wouldn't read in a file created in an earlier
> version...  he got a message suggesting it should be converted
> to RTF first.  So he promptly converted it into RTF, tried again
> and got a total failure to read the file!
>
> Moving right along, he took the same file, read it straight into
> Star Office 5.0, then saved it from there into a form that
> Word +would+ accept.  Strange...
>
> And I'm about to try the new converter for FrameMaker files in
> Star Office 5.0 as soon as I rebuild my Linux box....  It'll
> probably have some problems, but if it's handling MSoft stuff
> better than MSoft does itself, maybe there's cause for optimism.
> So far, I've found it rather nice to have had Star Office v. 4
> up and working.   It takes up a lot of memory (that sounds
> familiar), but at least when it crashes, it doesn't take the
> whole OS down with it, and can be restarted.
>
> BTW, there's Xfig for vector graphics (ok: interface is still
> a bit funny) and there's a new KDE vector graphics tool.
>
> And Gimp will do more than +just+ "a good job with bitmaps"...
>
> Pity Adobe's been stubborn so far about Frame, when in fact,
> some earlier versions from SCO can be run on Linux without
> change!
>
> This is a rapidly-changing scene...  stick around...
>
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> --
> Peter Martin, Contract Tech. Writer            peterm -at- foxboro -dot- com -dot- au
> +61 2 9818 5094 (home)  0408 249 113 (mobile)  peterm -at- zeta -dot- org -dot- au

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