7 Best Alternatives To Microsoft Office Suite — 2019 Edition

On 07/12/2019 03.37, Mayayana wrote:
"Zaghadka" wrote

| We're still experiencing the fallout from Microsoft's freaking "curly
| quotes" adventure. I personally don't understand the need to bolt on
| "pretty" when straight-up ASCII will do the job. Why mess with
| interoperability?

My feeling, too.

|
| On the same token, given memory and storage sizes, and its backward
| compatibility with ASCII, why not just use UTF-8 for everything? That's
| where we're supposed to be at this point. Universal unicode, right?
|
I've heard that's what Linux does. But that's complicated.
First, most older files are ASCII, or more precisely, ANSI.
People who speak a language other than English will usually
have files that depend on a codepage. ASCII, 1-127, is the
same everywhere, but 128-255 depends on the codepage.
So those older files are not compatible with UTF-8.

Oh, but we have converters to change an ascii text done in some codepage
to utf-8, and keep that version for the future.


Another problem is that UTF-8 may or may not have a
BOM.

What is a BOM? Google says "Bill of materials".

Another source says "Short for byte order mark, BOM is another name for
the Unicode character at the beginning of a file indicating if it's
UTF-16 or UTF-32."

It's not recommended and generally isn't in HTML
fils, yet Notepad adds it. That can screw things up, so that
a simple ASCII file is still not compatible.

I typically clean up any files I get in UTF-8. They're not
worth the trouble. With webpages it's usually just
non-breaking spaces and curly quotes that make it UTF-8.
And those webpages are in English. So there's no advantage
to UTF-8.

To me it seems that the real motive is political correctness.
Inclusiveness. For us English speakers that's not a reason
to use it.

You are not the only people on Earth, you know. It is just polite to
consider our existence.

Even Windows default to unicode.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

"Roger Blake" wrote

| On 2019-12-08, Char Jackson wrote:
| It's not hard to tap, double tap, long tap, swipe up/down/left/right,
and
| those are just about all the things you need to master.
|
| I don't have time for that crap. I loathe touch screens.
|

Yeah, but have you ever tried using a mouse and
keyboard while crossing a busy intersection? I'ts not
safe!

On 05/12/2019 22.40, nospam wrote:
In article , Zaghadka
wrote:

(By the way, you used a non-ASCII long hyphen in the subject line and not
all news readers handle it. I had to change the header to post to Eternal
September.)

that's a valid character in a subject or body.

you need to update your newsreader to modern standards.

Usenet has not upgraded the standards for the headers. It is considered
extinct by most, so why bother?

--
Cheers, Carlos.

In article , Mayayana
wrote:

| A few years ago I tried Suse and noticed that was
| also much better looking on the same hardware as
| Windows. I don't know why Windows graphics are not
| better. But it does seem that with Mac you get better
| display and better design. Maybe MS make a point of
| making it look generic. Like a pickup truck or sedan.
| The design says, "get something done".
|
| Since the hardware was the same, isn't that an indication the answer is
| in the quality of the driver's code?
|
Certainly seems that way. But Microsofties seem to
write brilliant code, from what I can see. So it doesn't
seem to make sense.

you obviously haven't looked at much code.

| The current iMac, and device screens are the retina design. I don't
| know what that means at the techno level, other than it's proprietary
| tech at some level.
|
It seems to refer to any screen that has the blessing
of Saint Jobs.

nope.

There are different versions.

not really. the dpi varies a little depending on device and size, but
that's about it.

From what
I can gather they're calculating how many ppi a device
should have based on size. Again, wonderful attention
to detail. Thus the extremely crisp display even on a
small phone.

it's a hi-dpi display and used across their entire product line.

| I've heard a similar story, but Jobs sued MS over stealing his UI
| design. But someone pointed out that Xerox had the design before Jobs.
|
That could be. Lawsuits have always been an Apple
business strategy.

no it definitely has not been their business strategy.

in fact, apple is sued more than it sues others.

They sued Samsung over slide to unlock
and round corners. I once saw a photo online of an
old, wrought iron slide bolt on a door. The caption read,
"Apple so invented slide to unlock."

that's taken out of context. it was part of a much much bigger lawsuit,
where samsung intentionally copied the iphone, which samsung not only
lost, but admitted that's exactly what they did.

** I may be reaching the limit on my posting ability.
Everyone will make fun of me, of course, but I'm using
OE6 and at some point it just rejects the header length
if a thread goes too deep. I've never found a way to
fix it. But I love OE for most things and don't much like
TBird, so I put up with it.

time to upgrade.

In article , Carlos E.R.
wrote:

When one is on a seminar, thus not at home, one can not print the
presentation.

if you're away from home on a seminar or some other event, then not
having to carry printed materials around is a big plus.

Having it on paper is useful to write with a pen notes on
it. Yes, PDF files can also be annotated, but I had not yet the chance
to try this at an actual event.

try it.

Some offer the PDF at some download site, or send them by email. But all
places I have been at hand out the papers.

some still hand stuff out, but that number is rapidly dwindling because
most people don't want paper, plus it costs money to print it.

Having said that, I prefer epub over pdf. Not presentations.

exactly, as do most people.

On 2019-12-08 7:35 a.m., Mayayana wrote:
"Rene Lamontagne" wrote

| nonsense.
|
| Nonsense is a communication, via speech, writing, or any other symbolic
| system, that lacks any coherent meaning.
|

If you don't know nospam then you need to. He's
either a compulsive arguer or a discussion bot
designed by researchers to study social patterns.
If you look at his posts you'll see that he never fails
to have the last word, appears to be knowledgeable,
yet rarely actually says anything. (Though he's very
consistent in his AppleSeed devotional wrath.)

It's an interesting behavior. The so-called Turing
test, as I understand it, states that we'll know we've
created true AI when a computer can convince a
person that it's a person. But that theory fails to
take into account that 1) humans are arguably not
conscious of their behavior and 2) we don't generally
listen to each other. We only scan for aspects that
we can agree with (friends) or disagree with (enemies).
So actually it's not so hard for AI to emulate human
intelligence. So nospam could very well be a bot
designed to elicit responses from humans. I've seen
his arguments go into hundreds of posts when he gets
hold of an argumentative opponent.



Yeah, I know noospam.
If I say my screen is blue he will say.

nonsense, its pink. that sums it all.

Rene

In article , Ken Springer
wrote:


He and his type are the reason I don't read the Mac newsgroups anymore.

more accurately, what you said in the mac newsgroups was incorrect
(sometimes wildly so) and instead of learning why, you attack not just
me, but multiple people in several newsgroups.

that says a lot more about you than it does about others, and not in a
good way.

On Sun, 8 Dec 2019 09:45:23 -0600
Rene Lamontagne wrote:

On 2019-12-08 7:35 a.m., Mayayana wrote:
"Rene Lamontagne" wrote

| nonsense.
|
| Nonsense is a communication, via speech, writing, or any other
symbolic | system, that lacks any coherent meaning.
|

If you don't know nospam then you need to. He's
either a compulsive arguer or a discussion bot
designed by researchers to study social patterns.
If you look at his posts you'll see that he never fails
to have the last word, appears to be knowledgeable,
yet rarely actually says anything. (Though he's very
consistent in his AppleSeed devotional wrath.)

It's an interesting behavior. The so-called Turing
test, as I understand it, states that we'll know we've
created true AI when a computer can convince a
person that it's a person. But that theory fails to
take into account that 1) humans are arguably not
conscious of their behavior and 2) we don't generally
listen to each other. We only scan for aspects that
we can agree with (friends) or disagree with (enemies).
So actually it's not so hard for AI to emulate human
intelligence. So nospam could very well be a bot
designed to elicit responses from humans. I've seen
his arguments go into hundreds of posts when he gets
hold of an argumentative opponent.



Yeah, I know noospam.
If I say my screen is blue he will say.

nonsense, its pink. that sums it all.

Rene



I killfiled that idiot long ago.

On Sun, 8 Dec 2019 14:09:30 -0000 (UTC), Roger Blake
wrote:

On 2019-12-08, Char Jackson wrote:
It's not hard to tap, double tap, long tap, swipe up/down/left/right, and
those are just about all the things you need to master.

I don't have time for that crap. I loathe touch screens.

When I'm sitting in front of my computer and my phone is also within reach,
it's the phone that I reach for 9 times out of 10 because I get my answer
so much faster on the phone. I can type a word at a time rather than a
letter at a time, or better yet, I use voice input and don't have to type
anything at all. If you don't have time for that, you surely don't have
time for standard PC (kb, mouse) input.

On 08/12/2019 14:08, Ken Springer wrote:
On 12/8/19 6:35 AM, Mayayana wrote:
"Rene Lamontagne" wrote

| nonsense.
|
| Nonsense is a communication, via speech, writing, or any other symbolic
| system, that lacks any coherent meaning.
|

Â*Â*Â* If you don't know nospam then you need to. He's
either a compulsive arguer or a discussion bot
designed by researchers to study social patterns.
If you look at his posts you'll see that he never fails
to have the last word, appears to be knowledgeable,
yet rarely actually says anything. (Though he's very
consistent in his AppleSeed devotional wrath.)

He and his type are the reason I don't read the Mac newsgroups any more.

He - or she - *IS* a difficult *type*! No doubt about that!

Can you tell me a bit more about your experiences on "Mac newsgroups"?
If you are referring to Usenet groups, to WHICH groups do you refer, Ken?

What has been your experience on the Apple Support Communities
forums/groups been like? Have you just asked questions or have you tried
to help others too?

--
David

On 12/8/2019 7:32 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 05/12/2019 22.40, nospam wrote:
In article , Zaghadka
wrote:

(By the way, you used a non-ASCII long hyphen in the subject line and not
all news readers handle it. I had to change the header to post to Eternal
September.)

that's a valid character in a subject or body.

you need to update your newsreader to modern standards.

Usenet has not upgraded the standards for the headers. It is considered
extinct by most, so why bother?


Considered extinct by some people, but not by most. Most people never
heard of it and don't even know it exists.

Even if most people considered it extinct, there's a good reason to
bother: there are still a lot of us who use it.



--
Ken

On 12/7/2019 5:55 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

I don't want a smartphone either. It appears to me everyone is addicted
to them,


No. A lot of people have them, but there are also a lot who don't--my
wife for example.


and it's becoming a recognized medical condition. They are an
anchor to people doing things. You are not going to see me walking into
a door because I'm looking at a phone.



Nor would you see me. I have a smart phone, but I don't use it while
walking.

--
Ken

On 12/8/2019 7:09 AM, Roger Blake wrote:
On 2019-12-08, Char Jackson wrote:
It's not hard to tap, double tap, long tap, swipe up/down/left/right, and
those are just about all the things you need to master.

I don't have time for that crap. I loathe touch screens.


I loathe touch screens on desktop computers or laptops. But as far as
I'm concerned, they're fine on handheld devices such as smart phones.


--
Ken

On 12/8/2019 9:16 AM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Sun, 8 Dec 2019 14:09:30 -0000 (UTC), Roger Blake
wrote:

On 2019-12-08, Char Jackson wrote:
It's not hard to tap, double tap, long tap, swipe up/down/left/right, and
those are just about all the things you need to master.

I don't have time for that crap. I loathe touch screens.

When I'm sitting in front of my computer and my phone is also within reach,
it's the phone that I reach for 9 times out of 10 because I get my answer
so much faster on the phone. I can type a word at a time rather than a
letter at a time, or better yet, I use voice input and don't have to type
anything at all.


Interesting. I'm not like that at all. When I'm sitting in front of my
computer, my phone is almost always in my pocket. But I almost never
take it out. I can google something on my computer faster then reaching
into my pocket for the phone.And I can use voice input on my desktop
computer too (also to tell the truth, I almost never do).




--
Ken

On 12/7/2019 5:58 PM, Ken Springer wrote:
On 12/7/19 1:35 PM, The Horny Goat wrote:
On Thu, 5 Dec 2019 21:07:22 -0700, Ken Springer
wrote:

I would say the size of the business will factor in too. There are lots
of small businesses that do not need or user that inter-connectivity to
operate their businesses. And, many times, people use PDF files these days.

I have no idea whether it's true or not but I heard MS Office was
designed with heavy input from major law firms on their needs.

That sounds more like WordPerfect, to me. Maybe Ken Blake knows.


I know that until WordPerfect 6.0 and its many bugs, WordPerfect was the
preferred word processor for many law firms. But I don't know to what
extent they provided input for its design.




--
Ken