[seul-edu] Re: M$ Audits (long) [was Re: MS targeting...]

[Michael Shigorin <mike@lic145.kiev.ua>]

On Wed, Apr 24, 2002 at 09:13:52AM -0700, tom poe wrote:
> > Go burn CD with win32 OpenOffice, Mozilla, GIMP, MySQL -- well,
> > LiteSTEP, TuxRacer and Solfege :-) -- and show it to the people
> Hi:  This sounds like a possible "model".  Can you take a few
> minutes and elaborate for an audience that might want to see a
> spec sheet, and maybe some instructions on how to set it up?
What spec sheet?  The binaries are on corresponding sites or
nearby.  As for ALT project, we have "value-added" Linux and
win32 builds of OO and Mozilla (vastly enchanced Cyrillic
support), so I'm putting these in.  But it's rc.local :-)

Elsewhere, grab the very first copy of (possibly latest version
of) prebuilt binaries for win32 (doubt anyone here will be eager
to redo the exercise), test them by installing on some win32
system, then -- burn, give it a run at local news, give it a
spread throughout local schools and your old friend the manager
at The Firm.  It would be always better to turn zip into
installer, but that's whistles.

Heck, I've already -- not even piggybacked, but plainly offered
-- OO/win32 to local "home computing" magazine.  They were VERY
interested, indeed.

Moreover -- OEMs here in Ukraine show high interest in
OO+Mozilla/win32 since "legalization" process is pushing the
customers to buy windows, but its price tag is apx. 1/3 to 1/6 of
office one.  And here these products come at hand; if we have OEM
customers getting used to them, platform change will indeed be
easier.

Oh well.  Back.

So -- take OO and Mozilla to start, these are "our response to MS
Office".  The others were mentioned because:

- MySQL is going to be put into OpenOffice.ru CD too (even if I
  have no particular interest in it, some people may find it
  convenient if done properly)

- GIMP (win32) was already published once on Chip CD here and
  worked just good (still had to crash it after half an hour)
  
- TuxRacer and Solfege would just fit kids' expectations I hope :-)

- LiteSTEP is a kind of cultural shock, but people who get used
  to it are rarely found back at Windows Explorer GUI.  Well, a
  person here seems to be easy to give away his tuned-up LiteSTEP
  installation, so if/when I get around to it, I'll put it
  somewhere and publish an URL.

And I'm now distributing what I already have -- and slowly adding
others to a collection.  Slowly since I don't need win32 builds
personally...

> We could build a HOWTO from that, and pretty soon, we'd have a
Why -- it's quite straightforward and more depending on taste.
Just like the preferred method of cleaning the mouse shouldn't
turn into a full-blown SGML beast normally :-)

The salt here is that if you package GIMP, don't forget to put
GUM there (GIMP User's Manual, http://manual.gimp.org).  Not sure
if OpenOffice manual exists (I've edited Russian one, but it's
rc.local again -- or better, ru.po :-)

-- 
 ---- WBR, Michael Shigorin <mike@altlinux.ru>
  ------ Linux.Kiev http://www.linux.kiev.ua/