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Being a fervent UNIX-on-a-home-PC advocate, I naturally want to shun DOS 
or Windows or its ilk.  I will celebrate the day when I can finally 
remove DOS and Windows from my machine, and move all of my daily (and 
not-so-daily) computing tasks to UNIX.

However, being a realist, I recognize that there are many tasks I still 
need to do that do not have good UNIX-based implementation.  Such as, 
word processing, spreadsheets, contact managers, et al.  Some of these are 
available in UNIX, but not all -- for example, I have yet to find a 
decent X11-based word processor, and the text-based tools I've found are 
great for writing notes and memos and stuff, but don't cut it for *real* 
document preparation.  (And, before you say it, yes I have heard of TeX 
and friends, and have tried them, but found them too confusing.  I'm 
hopelessly stuck on GUI's.)

WINE looked promising, but sadly it is not very practicable: just about 
all it can run is Solitare.  (Which is great -- I always liked the 
Windows Solitare game better than any other I've found on DOS, Windows, 
Mac, or UNIX).

Willows (TWIN) looks good too, and I've even heard reports (albeit 
second-hand) that say Microsoft Word runs under it.  Too bad it's only 
available in Linux-ELF format.  (I run FreeBSD, which can run a lot of 
Linux stuff in emulation, but NOT ELF.)

So, naturally, I jumped for joy when I heard of Executor.  Not only was 
it really cool to be able to run Mac stuff on my PC, but hey, now I can 
run Microsoft Word, Excel, all those goodies on an Executor window!!  
Never mind that I'm still not running them UNIX-native (some day!), but 
at least now I don't have to endure the humiliation and shame of having 
to re-boot into DOS/Windows every time I need to do something mundane, 
like do my monthly finances.  Plus, now I can get rid of my 500 MB DOS 
partition and put it to some real use, like recompiling X11R6 or getting 
a full newsfeed or something.

I consulted the AppNotes file, to see if it would support any of the 
applications I would need to do productive work, but unfortunately it 
generated more questions than it answered.  Sure, some of my programs 
(i.e. Microsoft Word) were shown as "yellow" status, which basically 
means they MOSTLY run but might have problems.  And some of my programs 
have cryptic comments like "stw" and "ntm" after them.  Huh??

So, my question to this list is: I have here a list of programs that I'll 
need to run to do my daily chores.  They don't have to be these EXACT 
programs -- if some other program does the same job, and runs better 
under Executor, great.  Also it doesn't have to be the exact latest 
version -- if the latest version doesn't work, but a previous one will, 
that's cool too.  I'm sure I can find some guy on Usenet who wants to 
make some quick cash and get rid of the aging versions of his software.

But, basically, how well do these programs run under Executor?  Which 
features work, and which ones don't?  Will they work enough so that I can 
be mostly productive, or will I just end up with a lot of headaches?  I 
don't mean it has to be perfect -- I'm not some Fortune 500 company that 
demands 100% perfect software/hardware performance or else I'll lose 
millions of dollars.  Just as long as I can get some work done.

Performance isn't that cruicial to me; all I care is whether it runs or not.

Anyway, here are the tasks I need to perform, and the programs I'd prefer 
to use.  Again, doesn't have to be that exact program, and doesn't have 
to be the latest version of it.

* Word processing:  Microsoft Word.
* Spreadsheet:  Microsoft Excel.
* Database:  Filemaker Pro
* Banking:  Quicken
* Small business accounting:  QuickBooks
* Scheduler:         \   I use Expresso/Stardate by Berkeley Systems to
* Name/address book:  \  do these, but I don't know if a Mac version is
* To-Do list:         /  available.  If one is, and it works, great.  If
* Contact manager:   /   not, I can probably use a database for the other
                         stuff, but I will still need a calendar program.
* Desktop publishing:  PageMaker

Please respond either to me (d_burr@ix.netcom.com) or the Executor list.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

Donald Burr [d_burr@ix.netcom.com], PO Box 91212, Santa Barbara CA 93190-1212
TEL (805)564-1871 / FAX 564-2315 / WWW http://www.geopages.com/WallStreet/2072
PGP Public Key available by request (send e-mail) or on Public Key Servers.
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