[gnhlug-jobs] [NH Jobs List] Job: Network/Database Administrator - Manchester

[Carl Helmers]

Let me add my own 2 cents re comparing FOSS and MS software:

I personally have been using linux on and off since the mid 1990's when I
started attending GNHLUG then MonadLUG meetings 1995-2002 or so...
I now live in western NY near Rochester NY now, after several years spent
moving from Peterborough NH and unwinding business affairs in NH.  I have
recently started attending the LUGOR [Linux User Group Of Rochester]
monthly meetings at Rochester Institute of Technology in Henrietta NY.

Since I started getting back into personal Linux hacking for the 
intellectual fun
of it,  I have started the -- s l o w -- conversion of my personal 
interfaces from the
Windoze world to the Linux / Emacs / Squeak world.   I have converted 
most of
my new word processing activities to Open Writer because it outputs 
non-buggy
HTML files compared to the MS Word2003 proptram when used with my presently
MS Excel 2003 maintained WWW site.

However,  as explained on my www.helmers.com site which I personally own
and as a result actively began to maintain in April 2006,  I created and 
maintain
my site with Microsoft FrontPage as a tool of convenience in my 
particular experience
context.

I use Mozilla as my exclusive browser from an HP Pavilion W-XP main 
personal platform; 
I use Thunderbird e-mail software runnning on this machine in its 
Windoze XP OS
environment.

I have no desire to convert the XP based application software that I 
presently
have to MS Vista given what I have read about this latest MS product.

I will perhaps be bounds forever to the AutoSketch [now Version 9] 
Windows-XP
drafting package I use for most of my applications work other than 
internet interaction.
Drafting packages take a while to learn well.  I have been using this 
AutoDesk product
since AutoDesk's founder John Walker recommended AutoSketch [then 
version 2] to
me as a simplified version of his "AutoCAD" program in a one-one lunch 
discusion at
an Asilomar Microcomputer Workshop we both attended perhaps a quarter 
century ago...

I have not yet made Open Office components other than OO Writer part of 
my regular daily
use of computers.  I have converted my daily queue files to OO Writer.  
I have written my entire
WWW site using OO Writer, prior to transferring HTML versions of .odt  
files into MS FrontPage. 
 From this  experience, I will certainly concur with the earlier comment 
in this thread:

   Free software is for everyone, not just nerds and geeks. If someone
   can use Word, they can use free replacements such as OpenOffice.org.
   For companies, it does not make sense to spend money on proprietary
   software, especially when free replacements are already available.  


In general, I like OO Writer better, though I still use MS Word when appropriate from a legacy 
point of view.  I have recently heard rumors that there exists a FOSS equivalent to MS FrontPage, 
but have not yet had the time to do the google follow ups necessary.  

Now that I have a working Linux system again after several years,  I recently started looking 
into using emacs or squeak  as FOSS web development tools,  but have not yet opened 
that particular can of intellectual nourishment in detail... 
(there are only so many hours in each day :-(>   )

Live Long and Prosper,

...Carl Helmers

    www.helmers.com

    Pittsford, NY

=======================================================================================================


Jon 'maddog' Hall wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-06-29 at 05:29 -0700, Lori Nagel wrote:
>   
>> Free software is for everyone, not just nerds and geeks. If someone
>> can use Word, they can use free replacements such as OpenOffice.org.
>> For companies, it does not make sense to spend money on proprietary
>> software, especially when free replacements are already available. 
>> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
>> Asking for documents in a proprietary format does not make a good
>> impression on potential candidates.
>>
>>     
>
> Scenario:
>
> The 60-year-old president of a small bank who only has windows machines
> on their desk would like to hire a FOSS person to come in and help them
> make their whole bank FOSS.  How could the bank president or their HR
> department read the resumes of the candidates sent to them?  Sure, they
> could put "OpenOffice" on their windows system, but that requires them
> to know that OpenOffice exists.  They could require the format to be
> PDF, but I consider that format to be almost as proprietary as .doc.
> They could require the document to be in html.
>
>   
>>  Perhaps this list should have a policy of not accepting ads that
>> request documents in such a format. 
>>     
>
> I think you are free to ignore those ads, but I would hate to block a
> potential job for a FOSS person just because the format requested is not
> open.  I think that choice should be up to the potential applicant.
>
> I will also note that OO both reads and writes .doc format.
>
> md
>
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