From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Dec 26 9: 7:16 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from sdsl-216-36-101-146.dsl.chi.megapath.net (sdsl-216-36-101-146.dsl.chi.megapath.net [216.36.101.146]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id E098637B416 for ; Wed, 26 Dec 2001 09:07:07 -0800 (PST) Received: (qmail 15080 invoked from network); 26 Dec 2001 17:07:28 -0000 Received: from apu.five.sight (HELO apu.five.sight.fivesight.com) (lucas@192.168.0.102) by wiggum.five.sight with SMTP; 26 Dec 2001 17:07:28 -0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <15402.975.919438.656366@apu.five.sight> Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 11:07:27 -0600 To: Frank Milner From: Lucas Bergman Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: software In-Reply-To: <3C29D88C.54F4042F@pathcom.com> References: <3C29D88C.54F4042F@pathcom.com> X-Mailer: VM 6.96 under 21.4 (patch 5) "Civil Service" XEmacs Lucid Reply-To: lucas@slb.to Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > This no doubt sounds like a naive question, but will Windows > applications run under FreeBSD? The short answer is: no. There is a program for this purpose called WINE, which is capable of running many Windows applications on Unix. Re-implementing Windows is hard work, however, and WINE is not very reliable with complicated software. See http://www.winehq.com/ > If not, what everyday word processors, spreadsheets, utlilities, > etc., can be used with this operating system? ApplixWare is available natively for FreeBSD, but it costs money. The Linux versions of Star Office and WordPerfect (if it's still alive?) work under emulation. There are ``open source'' office suite projects underway for both the KDE and GNOME desktops as well. As for applications that are less boring than word processors and spreadsheets, there are tons. Most of them are free with source code, and the ones that are out of ``beta'' are generally very reliable. See http://www.freebsd.org/ports/ > Perhaps Star Office applications? Yes. FreeBSD can run almost all Linux binaries flawlessly under emulation, and the Linux version of Star Office is no exception. > In other words, is FreeBSD suitable in anyway for the standalone > desktop? I, and I imagine most people who read this list, use FreeBSD as an every day system. That said, FreeBSD is not simply a free version of Windows, so one must expect to expend some effort in the direction of learning a new system. You usually don't have to give up your Windows installation in order to try out FreeBSD, so if you have some time to invest and some curiosity, then, by all means give it a try. After all, learning to drive a car takes considerably longer than learning to ride a tricycle, but most people I know would consider the former worth the extra energy. Lucas To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message