DOC files and Open Souce Software

[Artur F. Silva]

At 19:40 12-11-2000 +0100, Christoph J.W. Schmees wrote:

>*.DOC files may contain viruses. .
>
>Now, what is the solution? (...)
> From that you choose "Rich Text Format (RTF)",
>then "ok". That procedure
>yields a file 'documentname.RTF'

That's true. I think we should use RTF format. I normally
don't open Doc files. I made an exception in this case.
And I have always a very recent version of an anti-virus,
but in some cases this is not enough...


>Well, this approach exhibits one little drawback. If your document contains
>graphics (drawings, pictures) it may become a rather large RTF file. The
>cure for that is to compress (ZIP, RAR, ...) it before sending. Use one of
>the many shareware or even freeware compressors available or a file manager
>with built-in conpressing capability (WinCommand, Norton Commander, ...)


Again, I would suggest we use all the same compress/uncompress
product. I think Zip is the most common (and the one I use...)

No for a completely different subject. Christoph also wrote:

>And there are other products from
>other vendors out there which can easily compete, let alone other platforms
>such as apple, linux, you name them. (...) So if you want to make your
>document accessible for your colleagues
>outside the micro$oft mono culture, you'd best send it in a platform and
>product independent format.

Do you all know that Linux is a competitor from Windows that has similar
products for office (StarOffice) and many others, and that is free for use
(or almost free if you choose a prepared version). It belongs to what is
called "Open Source" software.

Please note the coincidence of "Open". Open source is "source code"
that is "open" to the world, non-proprietary, and free. Linus (the originator)
had the some benevolent position of Harrison, and there are millions
of teachers and students developing free SW to work with Linux.

Like open space or the communities I referred, Open Source SW
is in the way for a more solidary and co-operative world.

Can you imagine how much a big company, or university, or state
department pays every year to Microsoft? The good news is that
THERE IS NO NEED! Think about it.

Artur

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