Office Port?

**beezlebubsbum** · 08-10-2004, 12:04 PM

Yes ladies and gentlemen, it is true. An IBM spokesperson has revealed that they are currently working on porting Microsoft Office to Linux. Microsoft reckons that they haven't heard anything about it, but the same thing happened for the IBM Dominoe servers. Personally, I don't know what the fuss is all about because Office is crap, give me OpenOffice 1.1 anyday.

**jro** · 08-10-2004, 01:54 PM

Even if this is true, it is doomed to failure, most people run Linux to get away from Microsoft antics or Microsoft will block it with some sort of court injunction. Either way, I won't use it.

Also, how did IBM get ahold of Office source code? I would think MS would go to war before giving that out...

**kungfuramone9** · 08-10-2004, 08:18 PM

I agree. That sounds crazy. Here's a relevant article:

http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/32871.html

Sounds like MS is pretty ambiguous about the whole thing.

**beezlebubsbum** · 08-11-2004, 11:58 AM

I heard that IBM payed for access to a certain amount of Microsofts code. They have done it before for things like Outlook on the Dominoe servers before. Why would IBM lie about something that would make such a stir?

**di||itante** · 08-11-2004, 05:40 PM

I would'nt use it.

**jro** · 08-11-2004, 08:42 PM

I wonder why they aren't trying to port Lotus Notes to Linux. I mean other than Lotus Notes sucking major nuts. I wonder why they decided to use Office.

"...the IBM representative also said Big Blue should have a native, Java-based version of Lotus Notes for Linux by the end of 2004"

oh......,oops

I'm confused, its confused me, its all very confusing. yeah...

**kungfuramone9** · 08-11-2004, 10:16 PM

beezlebubsbum, good point. I guess no matter how *weird* it sounds there's no reason to think that IBM isn't actually doing it...

For me the weird thing is that you can achieve about 90 - 95% of MS Office functionality with the following:

1. Openoffice 1.1
2. Evolution

I mean....can anyone think of an app that's part of the MS Office suite not covered by the above? Visio is an add-on, as is Project, so I'm not sure if those count.

**jro** · 08-12-2004, 02:47 AM

No, absolutely not. Thats the reason any person who uses Linux voluntarily knows that an Office port isn't going to change anything other than there is one more MS product to avoid.

**Fatal Error** · 08-12-2004, 02:49 AM

With OpenOffice you don't get the very important blue screen app.

**beezlebubsbum** · 08-12-2004, 04:18 AM

Hahaha, true that. Nah, I wouldn't use it either, it is plagued with typical microsoft annoying features that I hate. Ever heard of Microsoft's intelligent menu feature? It's that thing that makes the menus cut off certain options, and then you have to click the annoying double arrow to enlarge it again. That better not get to linux...