Well, I'm going to let off some steam.
I'm on Demon, using the CWC 50p offer. I'm getting Star Office weighing in at around 70Mb. There's not much competition in the office world so I guess this is going to have to do.
So I start downloading from the Amsterdam mirror. It stalls more than it comes down. I abort and try the US East Coast; this one's fast without stalling.
Whoops. Netscape crashes at 15%, 3hrs 30mins to go. I go back to the website and try grabbing it again. Oh no! The webserver to manage download accounts is down.
In dispair, I find sun.co.uk, a lovely fast mirror. But oh no - the Star Office download goes back to the US. Why?
I try once again, and his time I'm not getting any response at all. In fact, a 503 Server Not Responding comes up. I hit reload a few times and am finally presented with a response: Your Session Has Expired.
I have now written to Sun blasting them for not keeping sun.co.uk in the UK. It's diabolically stupid to maintain a mirror when critical parts are left in one country susceptable to crashes and downtime.
If any of you are put into the position when you're asked to setup mirrors or something similar, think of my tale of woe and think harder than the people in management - do the right thing and mirror in full.
grrrr.
On Sat, Sep 18, 1999 at 06:46:38PM +0100, jg@cyberstorm.demon.co.uk wrote:
I'm on Demon, using the CWC 50p offer. I'm getting Star Office weighing in at around 70Mb. There's not much competition in the office world so I guess this is going to have to do.
Siag office? KOffice? Applixware? AbiSource? Other than the first, I've not used any of them much, but there is competition. StarOffice may be the leader, but it's no monopoly.
Whoops. Netscape crashes at 15%, 3hrs 30mins to go. I go back to the
Erm, do you have to use netscape to download it? lftp is more fault tolerant and (if you're feeling cruel and don't mind the server admin wanting your blood), you can pget. If netscape dies, it tends to delete the partially downloaded file (bleah).
Just some random thoughts. I'll go try to book a room for an October meet on Tuesday, honest(!).
MJR
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On Sun, 19 Sep 1999, MJ Ray wrote:
There's not much competition in the office world so I guess this is going to have to do.
Siag office? KOffice? Applixware? AbiSource?
*cough*
Siag office - under construction (doesn't even load Word docs, so is next to useless if you want to seemlessly integrate with others) KOffice - under construction Applixware - works fine, costs money AbiSource - under construction
I've not used any of them much, but there is competition. StarOffice may be the leader, but it's no monopoly.
Realistically, it's a two-horse race between Applix and Star. And if you're an impoverished student (or impoverished staff!), the choice is pretty limited.
Andrew.
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On Mon, Sep 20, 1999 at 09:44:13AM +0100, Andrew Savory wrote:
Siag office - under construction (doesn't even load Word docs, so is next to useless if you want to seemlessly integrate with others)
That's interesting, you know. I've just downloaded the latest Siag Office and it no longer loads Word docs. It used to (laola code, iirc), but I guess it's just too hard/not worth to hit a moving target like that... and even MS Office is "under construction" too, remember.
Realistically, it's a two-horse race between Applix and Star. And if
Just like the Grand National is "realistically a two-horse race"? Just because you don't rate the competition doesn't mean they don't get their names read out...
MJR
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On Mon, 20 Sep 1999, MJ Ray wrote:
and even MS Office is "under construction" too, remember.
True, but it is a product that you can use (allegedly) to achieve most WP tasks right now. Almost all of the others you cited are quite some way from being suitable for the average secretary's desktop.
Just like the Grand National is "realistically a two-horse race"? Just because you don't rate the competition doesn't mean they don't get their names read out...
I don't think the race organisers allow horses without legs, heads or jockeys though... ;-)
Andrew.
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Andrew Savory wrote:
On Sun, 19 Sep 1999, MJ Ray wrote:
There's not much competition in the office world so I guess this is going to have to do.
Siag office? KOffice? Applixware? AbiSource?
Siag office - under construction (doesn't even load Word docs, so is next to useless if you want to seemlessly integrate with others) KOffice - under construction Applixware - works fine, costs money AbiSource - under construction
All trying to lead Linux Office world. None seems to succeed, although I have a feeling StarOffice *might* survive.
They're giving away StarOffice for Windows9x too. It's minor, but has a little potential to keep users availablity little wide.
During the time of job hunting, I start to wonder what Sun is trying to concentrate on. They all told me "Windows, Linux, Java, Solaris, blah blah blah". (And I didn't apply for a job neither)
Yours
-
Andrew Savory -
jg＠cyberstorm.demon.co.uk -
MJ Ray -
Tatsuhiko Maekawa