[vox-tech] epson printer issues

[Peter Jay Salzman]

begin: Robert G. Scofield <rscofield@afes.com> quote
> On Saturday 01 December 2001 04:41 pm, Pete Salzman wrote:
> > 
> > it's been a long time since i used that monstrosity called star office, 
> 
> What wordprocessor are you using?  What do you recommend for Linux?  Are you 
> using Latex?
> 
> Bob

i'd say that i'm pretty much an advanced latex user, but unfortunately, latex
is overkill for short notes and general word processing.   i always use it
for scholarly papers and articles (i've started using docbook too), but not
for "general life" type stuff.

and i can't figure out how to use lyx.  it's like glade.  i can program gtk+.
not the best gtk hacker, but i can do it.   i have yet to figure out how glad
works.  gabe swears up and down it's easy....  anyway, lyx is beyond my
capability to learn.

i use abiword for a number of reasons:

1. on principle.  joe arruda and i have had arguments about how good it was
   for the open source community that sun bought SO.  i argued it was a
   terrible thing.  the licensing of 6.0 seems to have proven me at least
   partially correct.  we'll see what the licensing looks like when it goes
   out of beta.   abiword is GPL.   :-)

2. why not KDE or GNOME specific wps?   i don't use KDE or GNOME.  i don't
   even want the libraries on my system.  i'd rather use the space for
   something more important.  like mp3's.   :)    however, since you use
   KDE, this might be the best option for you.

3. why not something else?   abiword has become pretty damned stable in the
   past 6 months.  half a year ago, it was constantly segfaulting on me.
   everything was buggy.  they made great strides in a short amount of time.
   it's still a *little* buggy.  like when you spell check, it sometimes
   doesn't ignore words that you tell it to.  but it's not buggy in any of
   the ways that i care about.  if it improves at the same rate it's been
   improving, i'll be a very satisfied customer.

4. why not something else?   i REALLY REALLY like the fact that abiword can
   save stuff in XML format.  even though i don't know XML,  IN PRINCIPLE,
   i can pick up a book and learn it.  so if every copy of abiword
   disappeared off the face of the planet i can still edit and print my
   files.   or else give them to henry and beg him to do it.   ;-)

5. nice interface, powerful, has all the features i'll ever need, doesn't
   take a year to start up, yadda yadda yadda.

if i want something to look spectacular, i'll always use straight latex.

if i want something to look pretty, i'll use docbook.

for everything else, there's normal word processing.  and abiword is what i'm
happiest with.

one nice thing about open source though.  if i ever do decide to become a KDE
or GNOME user, i'm sure i can always export abiword docs to something else.

pete


-- 
PGP Fingerprint: B9F1 6CF3 47C4 7CD8 D33E  70A9 A3B9 1945 67EA 951D
PGP Public Key:  finger p@dirac.org