Re: More Political Stuff

[Paul Seelig <pseelig debian org>]

On 25 Aug 2000, Sean Middleditch wrote:
> Also the issue with StarOffice.  I've used StarOffice a couple times,
> along with ApplixWare, and my God did they ever suck horribly.  Is
> StarOffice REALLY going to be the official GNOME desktop?  
>
Please get your facts straight: The to be released StarOffice-6.0 will be
modularized into it's respective components taking (finally!) away the RAM
penalty involved so far.

> Why can't we develop our own software?
>           ^^
I take it that "we" includes you as well?  What has been your code
contribution so far?

> We have Gnumeric, and AbiWord could be great
> too if it got worked on more (its development seems Gods-awful slow to
> me).  We have Dia, and GIMP, etc.  What true point is there to using
> StarOffice?  
>
The StarOffice components are naturally far more advanced then the stuff
you mentioned above and will be merged.  The great thing about the reissue
of the SO code base under L/GPL is the possibility for code reuse.  We
won't get the SO as we know it shoved down our throats (luckily!).

> I mean, options are nice, but there needs to be one
> official office suite, and I honestly think GNOME needs its own, not a
> borrowed office suite that isn't that good to begin with.  
>
The fact that you don't like it doesn't mean it's bad.  So far, SO is the
best and most advanced available office application under Linux.  Corel
Office and Applix are a far cry from it when it comes down to corporate
needs.

> Finally, the speed.  GNOME does seem a lot less responsive than KDE
>
When using one of those silly comic strip themes?

Although i don't use a GNOME desktop at all (just plain WindowMaker and
any apps as appropriate), i found it to be the other way round when i
tried the latest prerelase for KDE-2.0 (probably containing debugging
code) in comparison with the recent Helix Gnome desktop.  I always found
that GNOME feels rather snappy if one doesn't use this silly Enlightenment
as window manager and if no memory hogging themes are used.  I do use the
"Step" theme since i use WMaker as window manager.

Please wait for the things to come before getting crazy with your own
uninformed fears.  Please direct any followup either to /dev/null or my
personal mail address instead of spamming the list.

                              Thank you, P. *8^)