Subject: Re: Solution, anybody?
From: Fielder George Dowding (fgdowding@iceworm-enterprises.net )
Date: Wed Sep 17 2003 - 17:34:20 AKDT
Greetings Stephen and all,
To my knowledge and understanding there is no easy or quick solution.
The Word Perfect (yuck!) legal documentation templates and macros of
song and story are really ugly hacks, kludges would be more appropriate.
They are fragile, but if used within their design parameters, are
extremely addictive. I can understand this small company's situation,
but the problem is not the so called "Linux-sized learning curve", but
the basic concept of how to do what they need done.
The Timeslips is another matter. It may very well run nicely under
Lin4Win, or there may be an acceptable substitute (either GPL/OSS or
comercial). Here, I suspect the problem would be one of data
translation, which is not unsolvable given the usual tools that come
with typical Linux distributions.
I am concerned that a failed attempt to provide a quick solution will
forever convince these people that Unice and friends cannot really do
the job and they will just have to stick with Microsoft or switch to
Apple MacIntosh. Thus, I hereby volunteer to help with a real solution
which may take a year or more. Please contact me off list if your
friends (clients, ?) are interested.
I see this as a very important foot in the door similar to the dental
office suite that is available in Debian (I don't know what it is
called).
On Tue, Sep 16, 2003 at 03:10:17PM -0800, Stephen King wrote:
> Hey, folks...got a very small company that wants to get away from the
> 'world according to Microsoft'. They've only got two computers in a
> peer to peer situation. Both operators are able and willing to face a
> Linux-sized learning curve. Unfortunately they're running Word Perfect
> for document creation (being a legal firm, this is a very important
> thing for them) and Timeslips for hourly tracking and billing. They're
> really hot on not wanting to lose those two apps, but neither of the
> apps seems to be supported on Linux platforms. Any ideas?
>
> Stephen King
>
--
Fielder George Dowding, Chief Iceworm .-. Debian/GNU Linux
dba Iceworm Enterprises, Anchorage, Alaska /v\ "Woody" v3.0r1
Since 1976 - Over 25 Years of Service. /( )\ User Number 269482
^^-^^
---------
To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org>
with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a23 : Fri Sep 19 2003 - 10:52:43 AKDT