I’m so sick and tired of Windows 8.1
It has issues and it crashes a lot on me. I use Microsoft Office 365. It’s free for a student like me. But I’m hoping it works on Wine.
I am just wondering if I can make the switch or just keep using Windows? I hope not.
Well, depending on your exact requiements Libre Office may do all that you need. If you really need MS Office 365, then maybe this codeweaver solution will work for you
On 2015-01-02, linuxguy0481 <linuxguy0481@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> I’m so sick and tired of Windows 8.1
>
> It has issues and it crashes a lot on me. I use Microsoft Office 365.
If you’re a college student why do you insist on using MS Office? MS Word is possibly the worst possible software for
writing a thesis because (among many other reasons) it’s terrible at handling citations, figures, and equations. It may
be what your colleagues use, but they don’t have to worry on the night before handing-in your thesis about checking all
the legends, page numbering, and referencing because it’s your problem not their’s. Invest in LaTeX if you value your
time.
> It’s free for a student like me.
No it isn’t `free’. For you the cost may be free, but the source code is not freely available and that’s why you don’t
see it running on free operating systems.
But I’m hoping it works on Wine.
It doesn’t. It may be possible with CodeWeaver, but YMMV. IIRC CodeWeaver is also not free so I’m not sure how much you
think it’s a little self-defeating to buy a non-free product to run cost-free software on a free operating system by
emulating the environment of a non-free operating system.
I am just wondering if I can make the switch or just keep using Windows?
You don’t have to switch. You can dual-boot to keep your options open. The openSUSE developers have done a fantastic job
in supporting GRUB-EFI to play nicely with Windows 8 and you get all the benefits of GPT partitioning. If you’re new to
GNU/Linux, you might consider Linux Mint, but I’m not sure how nicely it plays with Windows 8 and UEFI. If you prefer to
have a batteries-included GNU/Linux distribution (i.e. with propretiary drivers/codecs/etc…) you might want to
investigate Linux Mint. Or install both…
I hope not.
BUT-- No, GNU/Linux is not free - you pay with time rather than money. If you want to do `Windows-things’ such as use MS
Office, OriginLab, Corel/Adobe programs, etc… then you’re best bet is just to go to a Windows forum and fix your
Windows installation because GNU/Linux really wouldn’t be for you. But if you are prepared to explore free open-source
alternatives (e.g. LibreOffice/LaTeX, QtiPlot. GIMP, etc…) then you can install Windows versions on your computer to
try them out - if you like them, then install GNU/Linux.
Yes you can switch completely to openSUSE Linux unless your course requires some Windows only software to complete assignments.
If your courses mandate Word/Excel format submissions, you should be able to do everything you need with LibreOffice. But if you can submit in PDF, I strongly recommend you install LyX which is a frontend for LaTeX, particularly if you use mathematics or have to create extensive bibliographies.
You will find it takes about 2/3 of the time to write an assignment in LyX compared with any other word-processor.
for a thesis , you really should use LaTex
MS word is – yuck–
and office 365 is just plain garbage and a $$$$$ maker for Microsoft
if your Prof’s INSISTS !!! on Ms office docx format
– WHAT VERSION!!!
office 2003 can NOT read Office 2012
nor can office 2008 read office 2013 documents
libreoffice CAN read and write to them all
On Sat, 03 Jan 2015 02:46:02 +0000, JohnVV wrote:
> for a thesis , you really should use LaTex
>
> MS word is – yuck–
> and office 365 is just plain garbage and a $$$$$ maker for Microsoft
>
> if your Prof’s INSIST!!! on Ms office docx format – WHAT
> VERSION!!!
> office 2003 can NOT read Office 2012 nor can office 2008 read office
> 2013 documents
>
> libreoffice CAN read and write to them all
And sometimes it even gets the formatting right.
Seriously, even Microsoft can’t write a .docx converter that works
properly 100% of the time - LibreOffice/OpenOffice have even less of a
chance of it working well - and yet it does get it right a fair amount of
the time, unless you do really complex formatting.
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
And for point of argument.
Education establishments are always preaching inclusion.
How is Office 365 or any incarnation of MS Office inclusive?
They also preach “Free Expression”, “Free Thought”, and encourage “Free Exploration” …
but, they practise Censorship and Thought Control.
On 2015-01-03, caf4926 <caf4926@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> And for point of argument.
> Education establishments are always preaching inclusion.
I work in a University laboratory and sadly I have to disagree with this assertion…
… and this pattern is very common (at least at UK Universities). On top of this, most journals in my field only accept
docx files for paper submissions. So no - I don’t believe `preaching inclusion’ is a feature of educational
establishments.
I can get by with the help of htlatex, beamer, and occasionally wine. The only real problem comes with collaborators who
only know MS Word - they want `tracked changes’ to documents, which is not a properly supported feature in LaTeX, and
certainly not something htlatex can cope with.
Then something is truly amiss in this University.
Inclusion and Differentiation are the buzz words and philosophy of FE establishments in particular, from a teaching perspective. By extension though it has to permeate the whole learning experience. You see you would /could exclude some who don’t use MS at all. One reason why government establishments are moving or have moved to open format.
As for the use of MS docx, I would agree that it’s use is just as you say.
My point is/was: They preach one thing and do another. And will happily admit to such, shrug and carry on.
I have heard about latex a while ago. I just forgot about it until I read everyone’s replies. By the way, thank you all for the feedback.
Is Lynx the best front end to use Latex?
Wow 2/3 of the time instead of typing in Microsoft Word?!
Why is it so much faster to use LyX instead of M$ Word?
I understand why colleges and universities use Microsoft Office. To get them ready for the workforce. I see a lot of help wanted ads that say “proficient with MS Word and Excel”. I wish that wasn’t the case though but sadly it is.
Is there a MS Excel alternative that can be run in OpenSuse besides the one in LibreOffice?
Calligra Office is part of the KDE desktop suite https://www.calligra.org/
In openSUSE you need the kde-extra repo I think
The history of Linux was never to beat MS, so why do Linux users always demand this “equal” treatment, and “respect”? There is no major NYSE company dumb enough to deploy 10,000 Linux laptops to average people in the company. The CIO wants to keep his job.
It’s like McDonalds - you can drive from Maine to NM and make 30 stops at various McDonalds along the way, and guess what - the experience is about the same in each one. Windows is that way - until Linux decides it wants to quit jamming 100 flavors of everything down various IT departments throats, then everyone on this forum better get used to using Windows. The guy who does the “Why Does Linux Suck” videos even admitted that after so many years doing them, he still cannot do the whole show without using Windows tools part of the time. I try to always check my OS bias at the door, because in a perfect world, there would be no windows and there would be no Linux, because they both “suck”…But in my non-perfect world, I like Linux especially Ubuntu because it always installs with no thought on my part (lenovo B590 with Broadcom), including wireless (OpenSuse is not that good); I like OpenBSD because it runs well and stable on a 2001 era Sparc box, running X right out of the box, with hundreds of precompiled binaries for it. Not even FreeBSD can boast that - it takes 3 days to compile X on the Sun Blade. I like Windows 8.1, it’s a great OS and it runs beautifully on my Lenovo W530, taking full advantage of its design - Linux can’t do that, I tried both Ubuntu & OpenSuse in place of Windows.
everyone on this forum better get used to using Windows
Seriously. I don’t think so. I get along quite nicely without it.
I like Linux especially Ubuntu because it always installs with no thought on my part (lenovo B590 with Broadcom), including wireless (OpenSuse is not that good);
Get the facts right.
I too like Ubuntu and have a Lenovo Laptop with Broadcom. But as I understand it and from my experience you need an active Ethernet connection to allow the proprietary driver (wl) to be installed. And the same would apply to install b43 firmware if that would work for you. At a personal level of course if b43 is OK for you - you could keep a copy of the firmware on a pendrive (I do) and you can actually load it in a live session.
Windows 8.1, it’s a great OS and it runs beautifully on my Lenovo W530, taking full advantage of its design - Linux can’t do that
To me that just says ‘Avoid’ because your vendor has basically locked you in, not helpful and not a selling point, however wonderful Windows is on it.
Hmm. I don’t follow that argument. I buy a machine because I like the features on offer for the price. The vendor includes an operating system to have all those features fully working. The chances of any alternative OS supporting all of them immediately are not very high, but it’s not a lock-in as such. The alternative OS can catch up if and when it has the inclination and resource to do so. Where is the lock-in?
The idea of any vendor waiting for other operating systems to catch up or show interest in a particular device is ludicrous in the present highly competitive environment where design and new features matter to consumers (fashionable?). 
LyX supports this.
Yes, for several decades, now, and growing worse.
You might want to check your facts on this statement.
… and, provide citation. You could begin by checking Ford in Dearborn, and continue from there, if you like.
IMHO there is nothing to beat LyX as a front end. That said, if there is an obscure feature of LaTeX that LyX cannot handle I export to LaTeX, edit it in Kile and then import it back into LyX. However, it has to be really obscure for me to need to do that.
Because LyX takes care of everything. You say what you want it to do and it does it. For example, you can have Parts, Chapters and Sections - MS only offers sections. It handles all the part, chapter and section numbering automatically. It also numbers every table or figure you put in a float - a float puts the table or figure at the top of the next page automatically. No need to worry about where you put it in the document. Every time you use a reference, you put it in a BibTeX database; next time you need it, you recall it from the database. When your supervisor says you need to cut 20,000 words from your masterpiece, you cut it and all the references in that section are automatically removed from the bibliography. If you decide to change the order of chapters or sections it automatically renumbers everything, including tables and figures, to reflect the new order.
I could go on. I first used it for maths assignments in 2000 and I have been using it for academic typesetting for the last six years. In that period the developers have significantly improved its features. There is a handout I did a year ago which illustrates some of what it can do at http://johnrhudson.me.uk/computing/LyX_2_the%20ultimate_document_software.pdf
NB Even if a publisher wants Word, I always do my work using LyX and then export it to Word; it is still faster and more reliable, particularly where things like numbering and references are concerned, than trying to use Word.
Gnumeric - I use it in preference to LibreOffice Calc.
To switch or not to switch - that is the question.
Some switch, some fail.
Some switch, some prevail.
Some switch, to some avail,
but most just need a browser, with mail.