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What I Need To Migrate Fully
© Copyright Darrell Anderson.
(Reviewed and updated: June 19 2007)
I have addressed various issues about why I do not migrate fully to free software. Here I present a punch list rather than a discussion.
Critical
- Based upon my own tests and reading numerous reviews, I do not think I will be migrating from Word 97 to OpenOffice Writer any time soon. I have too much invested in my own templates and styles to make the move. Converting those templates, macro code, and styles is a lot of work. Been there done that. KWord provides no macro language to automate tasks and is a non-option. Frankly, I do not agree with the frames-based approach in a word processor (I understand frames in desktop publishing or newsletter software and I have used FrameMaker too). Abiword provides no macro support. I realize that most typical home and office users never use templates, styles, and complex macros. KWord and Abiword meets their needs. Any user who regularly depends upon templates, styles, and complicated macros knows otherwise and I will not beat that dead horse here. Writer supports macros, but I do not like OpenOffice, which to me is a bloated and sluggish software suite. I do not like the fact that OpenOffice does not use native widgets and DLLs for the interface. I also do not like Writer despite some improvements over Word 97. The OpenOffice developers alienated me when they stopped supporting NT4. To maintain my current writing environment I need to run Word 97. I am willing to consider migrating my Word 97 templates and macros — a long and tedious project, but not until OpenOffice Writer provides a Normal View (editing or draft mode). The last time I tried WINE I encountered several unresolved issues and problems. Note: I have been running a 2.6 kernel for several months and recently tried running Word 97 with WINE 0.9.37. I got Word 97 to run but I had to manually export many native Windows registry settings to get that far. However, I never could get my VBA environment running and Word is useless to me without my customized macros. Although WINE has improved with the front-end tools, my end-user results have not changed from when I last tested WINE. WINE is not an option for me. That leaves me thinking about virtualization. I have modestly tested QEMU and surprisingly I found NT4 running quite well. But OpenOffice still does not sit well with me.
- Fix the focus issues in KDE 3.5.x, specifically with Kate. I am a KDE user and to me, Kate is broken. When I open a document in Kate from within Konqueror, Kate pops forward but does not receive the focus. If I modify the focus prevention option then Kate merely flashes in the task bar rather than receiving focus and moving to the front of the screen. I have lost count how many times I have opened Kate from Konqueror, started typing and then realized Konqueror still had the focus despite Kate being at the front of the screen. This focus issue is terribly frustrating—death by a thousand paper cuts. Note: Fixed with my own work-around remedy.
- Konqueror should be the web browser of choice for any KDE user, but is missing many features that I consider essential to my web browsing experience. Understand that I probably could live with using some work-arounds to use Konqueror as my primary browser, but I prefer instead to see these usability issues resolved. Note: Partially fixed with improvements to Firefox. Firefox-GTK remains noticeably slower than Konqueror in my KDE environment, and remains slower than Firefox-Windows, but is usable. I tolerate Firefox-Windows, which in my snappy NT4 environment is slow. I hate XUL. With respect to my continued NT4 usage, I hope someday K-Meleon finally improves with a true tab environment rather than layers because K-Meleon is much more responsive than Firefox.
- I haven’t investigated email because I haven’t satisfactorily resolved my web browser issues. That is, I am not going to investigate migrating email if I am going to continue browsing from a different operating system. From what I’ve read and the little I have played with KMail, I suspect that tool will suffice for my nominal needs. However, I do need separate storage locations for email because I help two other people with their email and I refuse to risk mixing email exchanges. In Eudora 5.1 I am able to store emails separately and launch Eudora in separate, unique, concurrent sessions. I doubt KMail directly supports concurrent sessions or separate email storage locations because other than Kate, sadly all KDE programs are single session programs. However, a shell script and the kwriteconfig and kreadconfig tools might be able to provide a solution. Although I have somewhat resolved the web browser issue, I will not consume time trying to migrate email unless I successfully migrate or integrate Word 97. Thunderbird provides user profiles, which would provide me the user segregation I seek, but is another crappy XUL program. I have tested Thunderbird in NT4. I will not bother with XUL interfaces. Firefox is enough of a pain in the backside. Sylpheed does not support HTML or rich text emails and is not an option for me.
- Speed. KDE 3.5.x simply is not as snappy on my aging hardware as Windows NT4. I’m not interested in a bare-bones desktop using only a window manager and a hodge-podge collection of programs. I like KDE. Yet without newer hardware I do not see KDE getting any faster. I do not like Xfce although future versions are sure to improve more to my liking. GNOME is not going to provide any speed improvements over KDE. Therefore, although I might be able to technically resolve my primary issues, a sluggish desktop environment might be sufficient to keep me in NT4.
Getting Word 97 to work in WINE or virtual environment is a pivot point. Or, I spend a lot of time migrating templates, styles, and macros to OpenOffice Writer, but that is not going to happen soon — at least not until OpenOffice Writer supports a Normal View (editing or draft mode). Or I buy new hardware to run virtual environments, which wastefully relegates my currently useful hardware to the shelf. None of those avenues tingle me with excitement. My basic animal creature-comfort zone is screaming at me with such decisions. That comfort zone includes desktop environment speed.
Things I Can Live With/Without But Would Prefer to See Fixed
I address these issues in my Wish List, Nuisance Messages, and Unresolved Problems. Here are some additional observations.
- X session errors. I don’t know why the X and KDE developers cannot eliminate all of these error messages. Do they never watch the .xsession-errors log when they test software?
- Provide better support for using the multiple document interface (MDI) with Kate. I think I have resolved most of the issues with this, although I have not resolved focus issues. Still, why are KDE developers so resistive with the MDI? Many people prefer the SDI but others prefer the MDI. This should be an end-user choice.
- Although I have developed my own work-around, KDE never directly supports white mouse pointers without using themes.
What I Currently Find Useful in GNU/Linux, Slackware, and KDE
- I am not an expert in shell script programming. Hardly. But I nonetheless thoroughly enjoy all that shell script programming provides me. I always considered DOS/Windows script programming anemic.
- Inherent security. Much of the time I work as root and seldom work as a normal user. That is because I do not use GNU/Linux in any productive manner. As described throughout my web site, much of my GNU/Linux time is consumed with chasing bugs and tinkering. Nonetheless, should I reach that point where I am using GNU/Linux productively, I would find myself in normal user mode more often. The inherent security model of a ‘nix system then comes into play.
- CD burning. Basically K3B just works and that is sufficient for me. I am not into ripping music CDs. I burn only a few data CDs and a few ISO images. But K3B fits my nominal needs just fine. I only wish the authors would do something about filling the .xsession-errors log with useless and unnecessary messages.
- Network flexibility. The underling network tools provide users much flexibility in configuring their network needs. GNU/Linux boxes make great LAN gateways and network address translation servers. Built-in support for SSH (and fish), FTP, etc., all exist in any reputable GNU/Linux distro.
- KFileFind. A wonderful front-end for the command line grep. Although sometimes buggy in past releases, I always have found this tool useful. One of these days I might find time to explore grep from the command line, but as long as I use KDE, this tool usually is sufficient for my search needs. Yeah, command line is powerful and fast, but if a point-and-click solution sits before my eyes and finger tips, then I am not going to play the ego game.
- KFileReplace. I have not yet fully investigated this tool, but the tools seems like an adequate replacement for the Windows PowerGREP.
- Tidy. This tool seems to work well to validate HTML code.
- KLinkStatus. With KDE 3.5.4, this tool seems finally ready for prime time. No apparent bugs or crashes.
- With Kate (despite the focus issues), KLinkStatus, and KFileReplace, I could maintain my web sites solely from with KDE. I still need to learn how to upload and synchronize my files between my local system and my web sites. I am aware of the Quanta Plus environment and possibly one day I will investigate further.
- KSnapshot is an adequate screen capture utility. If only I could figure out how to properly capture screens in 16-bit desktops, rather than 24-bit.
- Kompare is a great front-end to the diff utility. I use this tool often. However, I detest the way Kompare is programmed to always try to outguess me in which files I want to compare. I also notice that Kompare never remembers my most recent comparisons.
- I like both KCron and KUser, both wonderful front-end tools.
- Ark is another excellent front-end tool. I only wish I could get Ark to work with 7zip files.
- The KDE Control Center front-end to CUPS is another excellent tool.
- Performing simple mathematical calculations with the Run tool (Alt-F2) is downright cool.
- SSH is pretty handy sometimes.
- I’m not much into computer games, but when I am burning CDs I find Patience and Shisen-Sho sufficient to fill the void of waiting.
Finis.
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