[NBLUG/talk] Linux for refurbished computers (was: Re: Distributing OpenOffice...)

E Frank Ball frankb at efball.com
Tue Aug 12 13:56:01 PDT 2003


On Tue, Aug 12, 2003 at 12:58:14PM -0700, Lincoln Peters wrote:
} >From: E Frank Ball <frankb at efball.com>
} >Reply-To: talk at nblug.org
} >To: talk at nblug.org
} >Subject: Re: [NBLUG/talk] Linux for refurbished computers (was: Re: 
} >Distributing OpenOffice...)
} >Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 22:27:31 -0700
} >
} >Gnumeric is fast.  It can also save excel files to very *readable* html
} >code.  I haven't tried Abiword since it was beta code, but it's probably
} >worth another look.  I haven't seen any fast alternative for powerpoint
} >files.
} 
} If I can convince the Computer Recycling Center to install Linux on one of 
} their recycled computers, I'll try to set up all of these applications 
} (Mozilla, Konqueror, Galeon, OpenOffice, Abiword, Gnumeric) and see which 

OpenOffice is a pig of an application.  It may do good stuff, but it's
not for slow hardware.  That's why abiword + gnumeric might be a better
choice for slow hardware.

Mozilla is a pig too.  Galeon is a little lighter because email,
newsgroups, etc are stripped out, but I wouldn't call it lean and mean -
it's sluggish but useable on my 180MHz K6 box with 128MB of RAM.
Mozilla does not need to be loaded too (at least in Debian).

An old version (4.78) of Netscape Navigator is much faster, but many
webpages won't display properly (or at all), and there are no more
security updates.

 
} I still can't get the Gnumeric website to load on my computer.  Is anyone 
} else having problems with the Gnumeric website?

Most distributions come with a galeon package these days.


} >Last time I tried Konqueror it was pathetic, it seemed to be missing
} >capability necessary for displaying many web pages.
} 
} It works fine for me.  How long ago did you use it?  I'm using version 3.1.3

It was at least a year ago.


-- 

   E Frank Ball                frankb at efball.com



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