[GRASSLIST:3720] Re: Linux vs. Windows 2000 port

[Rich Shepard]

On Wed, 22 May 2002, Erin ODoherty/RMRS/USDAFS wrote:

> I have a dual boot on my PC at home and find it a pain when I want to move
> GRASS information into Windows (where I do all my word processing, e-mail,
> and stats).    I have to reboot  to move back and forth (or am I missing
> something) and I'm too impatient for that.   I think I'll keep the old
> Pentium 3, and run Mandrake.  Thanks for the tip about display card, I may
> have to upgrade it.
 
Erin,

  Other options to consider:

  1) Replace w2k with linux and a copy of VMware (or, Lin4Win) to run the
windoze stuff.

  2) Best option: replace w2k with linux and use OpenOffice-1.0.1 for
processing words, sylpheed/Kmail/Evolution/Mozilla, etc. for mail and the R
programming language for statistical analyses. You can also use the Gri
scientific plotting replacement for gnuplot.

  I've been running linux exclusively (except for the GPS setup software and
a legacy copy of MapInfo both running in VMware) and there's not a business
or scientific function I cannot do. And do better and more reliably.

  OpenOffice is (I am told) a functional replacement for MS-Office. It does
word processing, spreadsheet calculations, presentations and something else.
We are moving to it from WordPerfect-8/linux that decided to not recognize
the printers after four years. OO also has been ported to windows.

  You can also set up samba to exchange data between windoze and linux.

Rich

Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President

                       Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)
            2404 SW 22nd Street | Troutdale, OR 97060-1247 | U.S.A.
 + 1 503-667-4517 (voice) | + 1 503-667-8863 (fax) | rshepard at appl-ecosys.com
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