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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
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