>> Sure. But you'd have to have MySQL installed, then you'd have to create
>> a folder to put the files in, then execute several dozen raw SQL
>> commands to manually build the database, create the log files, build the
>> tables, then you'd have to configure the access controls, and then you
>> can configure Base to talk to it.
> 
> Um, no, generally the app will list mysql as a requirement, but then will 
> script the building of the database.  Or if it's SQLite, then it's pre-
> created by the application.  Running Linux applications isn't as complex 
> as you seem to think it is.
> 
> And as for the database creation, I tend to use something like Webmin or 
> MySQLAdmin (a PHP interface) which simplifies things.  But I'm also 
> comfortable using the mysql command-line client as well.

I'm not talking about "I installed this application which uses MySQL". 
I'm talking about "I want to use OO Base with a MySQL backend to quickly 
throw together a simple database". MS Access serves this use case much 
better.

> I'm not arguing that.
> 
> Though actually oobase does have it's own database format that's as easy 
> to use as MS Access (I hadn't actually looked at it because I don't use 
> it that often).

Mmm, OK. I didn't know that.

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Darren New wrote:

> Looks like they're basically reinventing COM and CORBA without 
> following any actual standards, like COM or CORBA.

Great. It's 8:56 and I've already had my morning LOL! :-D

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Darren New wrote:

> Now, some of these may be out of 
> business, but that's not really to the point, because they *were* 
> competition when they were around, and they couldn't compete.

Couldn't compete with MS products? Or couldn't compete with MS's 
underhanded not-strictly-legal anti-competetive practices? That is the 
operative question.

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somebody wrote:

> Imagine if drugs were not made available until they were
> improved to the point of having no side effects at all.

Just as a minor technical point: That's impossible.

There are two kinds of drugs: Those that have side-effects, and those 
that have *no* effects.

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On Fri, 14 May 2010 08:55:48 +0100, Invisible wrote:

>> Though actually oobase does have it's own database format that's as
>> easy to use as MS Access (I hadn't actually looked at it because I
>> don't use it that often).
> 
> Mmm, OK. I didn't know that.

As had I not, until I ran oobase and looked at it again.  It's been a 
while.

Jim

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On Fri, 14 May 2010 09:03:44 +0100, Invisible wrote:

> somebody wrote:
> 
>> Imagine if drugs were not made available until they were improved to
>> the point of having no side effects at all.
> 
> Just as a minor technical point: That's impossible.
> 
> There are two kinds of drugs: Those that have side-effects, and those
> that have *no* effects.

I think that's somebody's point.  If we waited until the product was 
perfect, it would never ship (whether it's software, drugs, or whatever).

Jim

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Invisible wrote:
> Darren New wrote:
> 
>> Now, some of these may be out of business, but that's not really to 
>> the point, because they *were* competition when they were around, and 
>> they couldn't compete.
> 
> Couldn't compete with MS products? Or couldn't compete with MS's 
> underhanded not-strictly-legal anti-competetive practices? That is the 
> operative question.

Given that most of those OSes ran on machines where MS-DOS didn't, I'd say 
the former.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    Ada - the programming language trying to avoid
    you literally shooting yourself in the foot.

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>> There are two kinds of drugs: Those that have side-effects, and those
>> that have *no* effects.
> 
> I think that's somebody's point.

I had to parse that twice! ._.

> If we waited until the product was 
> perfect, it would never ship (whether it's software, drugs, or whatever).

It's not a good analogy. Drugs don't time a long time to ship because it 
takes time to improve them. They take a long time to ship because of all 
the multiple levels of safety testing that have to happen. (Speaking as 
somebody who works for a company in that line of business...)

I don't disagree that it takes time and money to build better software. 
I'm just saying this isn't a good analogy. ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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On Fri, 14 May 2010 18:42:49 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

>>> There are two kinds of drugs: Those that have side-effects, and those
>>> that have *no* effects.
>> 
>> I think that's somebody's point.
> 
> I had to parse that twice! ._.

Yeah, as I wrote it, I thought "this could be quite confusing". ;-)

>> If we waited until the product was
>> perfect, it would never ship (whether it's software, drugs, or
>> whatever).
> 
> It's not a good analogy. Drugs don't time a long time to ship because it
> takes time to improve them. They take a long time to ship because of all
> the multiple levels of safety testing that have to happen. (Speaking as
> somebody who works for a company in that line of business...)
> 
> I don't disagree that it takes time and money to build better software.
> I'm just saying this isn't a good analogy. ;-)

Well, yeah, it's not really a good analogy after a point, but there is a 
sort of iterative process used in developing new drugs, too - I think 
that's what somebody was trying to say. ;-)

Jim

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"Orchid XP v8" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:4bec4c2d$1@news.povray.org...

I don't understand you. First you say

<q>
There's no *technical* reason, however, why somebody can't go out and
implement an alternative office suite. (Apart perhaps from file
compatibilty.) Yet nobody has done this. So everybody has to buy MS
Office, because no alternative exists.
</q>

and then:

> I tried KOffice. It works, but it doesn't seem to *do* very much, and
> it's infuriatingly fiddly to operate. (Especially the spreadsheet. In
> fact, I've yet to find any spreadsheet that works as well as Excel -
> which is worrying, considering that Excel wasn't work fantastically.)

So, when you say there's no alternative to MSOffice, do you mean there's no
alternative to MSOffice that is *as good or better than* MSOffice? Well,
someone has to be the best (at least from individual's POV). MSOffice
doesn't need to be perfect/"fantastic", but if even a career critique like
yourself admits it works the best, then case closed: MS is obviously doing
something right.

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