Agree on the HW upgrade.

Post #112,904 by Another Scott 8/6/03 10:09:59 AM Reply	Agree on the HW upgrade. Time savings alone will objectively justify the cost, but having a bean-counter approve it is another issue... I've purchased two refurbished Compaq Presario 6000 machines recently. They've been fine. They now have a similar machine for $399 without a monitor. It has a 90 day warranty. [link\|http://www.shopping.hp.com\|http://www.shopping.hp.com] click on "outlet store" then click on "refurbished desktops" then click on "refurbished Compaq Presario desktops". (I'd post the URL but is has a bunch of Java session ID stuff in it...) AthlonXP 2000+ (1.67 GHz) 256 MB PC2100 40 GB hard drive 48x12x48 CD-RW 10/100 ethernet, modem Integrated graphics Sound, etc. WinXP Home Mine was similar but has a 60 GB hard drive and a CD-RW/DVD combo drive. $420. and $400. for the two I bought. I'm sure you can get similar machines elsewhere, and your local shop may be able to build something similar for less. Being able to buy them off the shelf saves the aggravation of putting them together yourself. Otherwise, if they insist on the same hardware, I think you'll have to go with a server/thin client solution like KMS and others have outlined here. Good luck. Cheers, Scott.
Post #113,218 by rickmoen 8/8/03 3:25:16 PM Reply	WordPerfect filters While I thought OpenOffice.org (OOo) would read/write WordPerfect docs, I find no control for this, or mentions in the online help. To quote a friend of mine, "Well, read the [link\|http://linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/future.html#ALTERNATIVES\|FAQ]." grin That is, there's an alpha-stage filter project, run out of a SourceForge project page, with (if memory serves) development shared between the OpenOffice.org Writer people and the AbiWord people. Progress isn't very fast because there doesn't seem to be heavy effort being put into it. They've bestowed on the underlying library a "version 0.5" moniker for the latest release, which version you can use for command-line conversions. By contrast, the "writerfilter" version, i.e., the OpenOffice.org Writer plug-in filter, currently remains at "version 0.1", which sounds a bit scary. Me, I've had excellent luck in the past using the wp2latex command-line filter to translate .wpd documents into TeX, and from there to whatever I want using LaTeX stuff, but clearly this isn't what a non-technical office worker wants. Sites that need to do a one-time conversion of legacy .wpd documents into .rtf, .sxw, or something else useful will find the available command-line tools to serve nicely (batching is so nice!), but will have a minor dilemma if they're obliged to have ongoing bidirectional conversion. Some of the proprietary suites do include robust .wpd filters (Anywhere Office, Ability Linux, TextMaker for Linux). Rick Moen rick@linuxmafia.com If you lived here, you'd be $HOME already.
Post #113,236 by orion 8/8/03 6:10:29 PM Reply	Cheaper Hardware How cheap do they want to go? Consider this company: [link\|http://www.pconramp.com/\|http://www.pconramp.com/] Well when they get their web site back up next week, sigh. Contact sales and ask them about what used systems they have for sale. But they have Pentium III 600Mhz systems and up for under $200, Dell, Compaq, IBM, etc. Sans monitors. Good enough to run Linux on, and cheap enough to get the Bean Counters to consider a HW upgrade. Used, ex-leased systems, limited warranty, and sans OS. If they want cheaper than that, they are just being impossible.

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