Applications
| Unfortunately, if you have a large investment in application software that was written (or compiled) for a Windows platform or NetWare's native servers, you will need to purchase new versions of your existing software or purchase new software. If you have internally developed applications for which you have the source code, you might need to make only minor changes and recompile the source code on a Unix/Linux system. The C language (and its descendants) is the programming language of choice for Unix/Linux, so if your in-house applications were written in C, then this task may be somewhat easier. Unix systems are marketed by most every major computer manufacturer. As the popularity of Linux continues to grow, many vendors have started to think about producing Linux versions of their products as well as Unix versions. You won't find Microsoft Office there yet, but you will find competing products. If you can use the file conversion capabilities that come with most products of this type, you might find that changing to a new product is not that painful, short of a little user training. One important competing product is Sun's StarOffice. This application was originally offered as a free download. However, Sun now charges a very small price for the software. If you want a version that is almost the same, but lacks just a few features that StarOffice provides, you can get the open -source OpenOffice suite. OpenOffice is distributed by most Linux vendors (such as Red Hat). Because Linux is more likely to be used as a desktop replacement for Windows systems, OpenOffice is a bargain. And OpenOffice's word processing, spreadsheet, and other programs are compatible with Microsoft Office versions, for the most part. StarOffice is available for the following platforms:
You should regularly check the OpenOffice Web site to keep up with new ports of this office suite to other platforms. The applications that are provided with Sun's StarOffice include the following:
As you can see, StarOffice offers just about the same applications you'll find in Microsoft Office. Because of its price and availability on multiple platforms, you might find integrating Linux into an existing Windows environment to be less costly than you had originally anticipated. Or, if you do have a Unix desktop computer, StarOffice is easier to use than many Unix utilities that provide similar functionality. You can learn more about the StarOffice Application Suite at the following URL: wwws.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/6.0/ OpenOffice can be found at this site: www.openoffice.org/ OpenOffice is available in several languages, and you'll even find a version for Windows. So you can run the same office suite for Unix/Linux users as well as for Windows clients on your NetWare network. If you already have a large investment in Microsoft applications, you can use one of the alternatives to StarOffice or OpenOffice. You can purchase software that emulates Windows and runs some of those applications on a Linux computer. For example, a company called CodeWeavers (www.codeweavers.com) sells a product called CrossOver Office. You can download an evaluation copy from its Web site before you decide to make a purchase. If you decide that this product works well on your Linux computers, you'll find that it is very inexpensive: just under $60. Although CrossOver Office doesn't run every Windows application, CodeWeavers is working to add additional applications. Some of the Windows applications depend on the version of the product you buy. The following applications that were written for Windows 97, Windows 2000, and Windows XP using CrossOver Office include:
In addition, some non-Microsoft products are also supported:
At the CodeWeavers Web site you can also find a list of applications that can be run, but may encounter a few bugs . These applications are still under development, however, and support for them will be added in future versions of CrossOver Office.  |
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