From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Dec 15 10:40:22 1996 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.4/8.8.4) id KAA19598 for questions-outgoing; Sun, 15 Dec 1996 10:40:22 -0800 (PST) Received: from who.cdrom.com (who.cdrom.com [204.216.27.3]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.4/8.8.4) with ESMTP id KAA19578 for ; Sun, 15 Dec 1996 10:40:18 -0800 (PST) Received: from suntan.tandem.com (suntan.tandem.com [192.216.221.8]) by who.cdrom.com (8.7.5/8.6.11) with SMTP id KAA24477 for ; Sun, 15 Dec 1996 10:34:55 -0800 (PST) Received: from papillon.lemis.de by suntan.tandem.com (8.6.12/suntan5.961027) id KAA27744; Sun, 15 Dec 1996 10:34:44 -0800 From: Greg Lehey Received: (grog@localhost) by papillon.lemis.de (8.8.4/8.6.12) id HAA00278; Sun, 15 Dec 1996 07:50:00 -0800 (PST) Organisation: LEMIS, Schellnhausen 2, 36325 Feldatal, Germany Phone: +49-6637-919123 Fax: +49-6637-919122 Message-Id: <199612151550.HAA00278@papillon.lemis.de> Subject: Re: Applications for freeBSD In-Reply-To: <199612100521.VAA12350@freefall.freebsd.org> from "cruisey@b022.aone.net.au" at "Dec 10, 96 03:20:55 pm" To: cruisey@b022.aone.net.au Date: Sun, 15 Dec 1996 07:49:59 -0800 (PST) Cc: questions@freebsd.org (FreeBSD Questions) Reply-to: grog@freebsd.org (Greg Lehey) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL28 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk cruisey@b022.aone.net.au writes, with lines up to 321 characters long: (Please excuse me for making the text legible) > I am not sure that I should be asking you this question, but I've > been looking for an hour and a half on the internet and even though > I have traced several leads, I am no closer to resolving things. > > To me, nearly all basic computing in an office needs wordprocessing, > spreadsheeting and database (with programming language) > software. Since Windows based programs exist everywhere, it would be > important for me that such unix programs can readily be used (ie > just as friendly) by staff who would be asked to convert over. The good news is: they exist. Try sc or oleo for the spreadsheet, Postgres95 for the database, and any of a plethora of text formatters (first and formost groff and TeX) for the "word processor". The bad news is, they won't find instant staff acceptance, to put it mildly. IMO the spreadsheets are just plain weak, the database stuff is not oriented towards Windows-like display, and the word-processing stuff I use would give your staff the screaming heeby-jeebies. I've been told that Lyx isn't bad, however. The trouble with this kind of software is that hackers don't enjoy writing it, so there aren't many Windows-like applications out there. The ones that are available cost money. Word Perfect is available for SCO and, I think, Linux, and I've been told that it works well under FreeBSD. > So where can I find a thorough listing of such software or better > still, are there people out there who are familiar with my situation > and can point me to a suite (or good selection) of quality software > products. A priori you can expect that stuff which runs under BSD/OS will run under FreeBSD. Install the appropriate emulators, and you can run SCO or Linux stuff. And take a look at the directory /packages on the first CD-ROM for available free software. Greg