“Written communication is important in the corporate
environment, be it a memo for your staff, a business plan for the
banks or a resume for prospective employers. Tasks with a word
processor can be as simple as the aforementioned or as complex as
filing out thousands of letters to customers with custom addresses,
graphics…everything short of moving video and dancing girls.
These suites have become very important to a computing platform,
especially one that sits on the desktop.”
“With Linux’s recent mass movement onto the desktop, these
office suites will determine Linux’s overall success. Why?
Compatibility. As Linux becomes more viable on the desktop as
cost-effective alternative to existing commercial products, the
forward looking managers will attempt to deploy them in their
office. As this happens, their employees will look into Linux for
the home because they want to keep compatible with the systems at
work. As this happens, education systems themselves will look
towards the corporations and provide training on systems that are
compatible to ease entry into the workforce. This also means the
students themselves will look towards Linux systems to keep
compatible with the schools, who are in turn keeping compatible
with the corporations, who are in turn trying to keep total cost of
operation low while keeping employee productivity stable. I call
this, “trickle-down computing” which is the very reason why “IBM-PC
Compatible” computers rule the desktop and not Apple Macintoshes.
This is the reason my old high school taught with PC’s and the
reason I own several PC’s.”
“These products have matured and are nicely wedged in the office
environment. It would be suicide to attempt to remove that wedge
which is so tightly planted that who knows what will break down.
Imagery aside, the common theme here is compatibility and
integration. With this in mind, I will take a look at several
word processing and office suites for Linux and see how easily they
integrate with the rest of the office.“