Page 2 - The Office XPerience

What are they (or you) smoking?

Knoppix is a compressed Linux filesystem along with a bunch of GNU tools on a bootable CD. The argument is that because the image on the CD is capable of it's own computing efforts, it is in itself a computer. They also won't support or allow any handheld device that includes any OS other than Palm OS or similarly "lightweight" OSes. Windows CE, for example, is out, because that makes the handheld a personal computer and they won't let you hook it up to their equipment.

Frankly, the first thing I'm going to check on when I get a new job (whenever that may or may not be), is whether or not the IT department has gone completely off the deep end yet. I also won't work in an all-Microsoft environment ever again. They're really nice individuals, but professionally, the whole IT dept. is among the biggest pains I've ever put up with at a company.

That's bull****. It's an OS and apps, not a computer. Funny way to define a computer if you ask me... Good idea.

Since Office 97, I have been waging war with the Numbering function. Here's the dialogue I have w/ this software.

Me : Hmm, hmm, hmm. I'm typing, I'm typing. Wait a second, why are you numbering this stuff?

MS, Clippy the Paperclip, whatever : Because you typed a couple lines of text indented from your regular block of text, so I assumed that you want to number it, so I started numbering it for you.

Me : But I don't want it numbered (I click the numbering button off.

Clippy : (Waits until the next indented line of text) AHA! But surely you want this numbered!

Me : No, I don't. (I try backspacing which returns it to it's original format)

Clippy : OK. How 'bout this?

Me : AAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!! (Reboot to Linux - switch to OpenOffice.
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On another note, I like Knoppix. I teach a cgi/perl programming class at a technical school that issues it's students windows PCs. I can now give them Linxu w/o having to partition their drives.

I believe if you go Tools > AutoCorrect Options > Autoformat As You Type there is an option to remove the "helpful" bulletting and numbering of your indented text (apparently, the average Microsoft user is too incredibly dumb to know when they do and don't want to bullet or number their own lists - this probably explains the phenomena of people who march into crooked / crappy places like Computer Learning Network and come out with Microsoft Office "certification").

Don't quote me on those instructions though. It seems as though it's possible for two people to have M$ software installed from the same blasted CD and still have different options and setups...

(Sorry for not being to offer help or anything constructive at this point.)

ROFL! @ M$ & M$-worshipping IT depts

(Now installing Gentoo Linux )

I might be able to give a little insight into the "heads" of your IT dept. The reason they don't want people installing things is because of what could happen to the rest of the network. Not only does this apply to viruses, but any number of other programs that cause Windows to go screwy(er).

I was looking through a network awhile ago and this IT dept was 10 times stricter than your's ctb. They had removed the individuals ability to install any program, or open any file other than what was allowed. They had disabled the /file/open feature in most programs, including IE and others. Each user only had the bare minimum of user rights on their machine.

As for worshiping M$, most probably do, but only because that is what the higher ups want. I've tried to get Linux servers into networks and even with the $$ savings, they shoot me down. The only place I get to run a linux server is here in my stores

Oh, I know why they're so tight-arsed about it... because everytime the wind blows the wrong way every Windoze machine on the network crashes...

The funny thing is, though... to date, I've had them install the following "non-standard" software on my machine:

Perl
Multi-Edit
PostgreSQL
Apache
FrontPage (ugh.. more to come on that)
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe PhotoShop

To date, Multi-Edit, PostgreSQL, Apache, and Perl have run along peacefully without causing a single problem - ever. Period.

FrontPage, Outlook, Word, Excel, Visual Studio, Internet Explorer, Access, and even notepad.. yes... notepad... have fouled things up to the point that on wwwaaayyyyy more than one occasion I've had to big red button the machine (once with an Access database open that I actually left overnight because I had some tiny, worthless little sliver of hope that maybe it would unlock.. it didn't.. the database got fragged when I rebooted). I had to close out and restart on a few occasions because of the Adobe products blowing up.... we also logged some 180 hours of downtime last year because of IIS crashing out on the server.

I don't know... I have to say that I have a great deal of respect for the physical hardware and networking abilities of our IT group... but when it comes to picking software in a logical, sensible manner... whoever does it doesn't do it well at all. I'm getting very tired of using this crippled, half-finished garbage they call "Wintendo"... it's amazing, once you get used to a BSD or a Linux, just how quickly you realize how very little a typical Microsoft Windows installation is capable of doing.

Done it. I think I've fallen in love with it
http://www.gentoo.org/

The first time I installed Linux, it was Mandrake 8.1, and the install was the biggest pain in the a$$ I ever experienced. I thought to myself, the payoff better be huge for what I just went through to get this running.

The payoff was very huge. It baffles me that for $200 you get an OS and not much else. If you want even one server (Win2k server), it's another 900 bucks.

For $39.99 - that's right, not even $40.00 - I got the OS, a full office suite, not one, but more than 10 servers (if I want to use all of them), a crapload of development tools, games o' plenty, God knows how many desktop environments, and the right to put it on as many machines as I damn well please.

People will say "But Mandrake will go under if you just buy one copy and install on more than one machine..." No it won't. v9.1 just came out and Mandrake will get my money again for the new version. MS will not get a dime.

I beta tested Office XP, bought it with my employee discount and never installed it. (I got a new CD-Burner and extrnal Zip drive at the time for free along with one of those cool optical mouses)

Then I switched to OSX and have Office V.x for Mac and like it quite a bit. Although, if it wasn't for Powerpoint, I could have survived with Apple works 6.