I am trying to do a relatively simple database project using Open Office Base. The very simplest task is pretty much impossible. I have wasted two days on this crap. I would have the whole project done, if I were using Access, but the customer doesn’t want to spring for it. So thanks a lot. Your software sucks.
And yet you Linux freaks can’t fucking understand why nobody wants to use your shit. Well, let me explain it for you, you microencephallic wankers: the rest of the world has work to complete. We don’t live in our Mother’s basement eating fucking Cheetos for a goddamn living. There is a REASON why Microsoft rules the roost in business apps, you know, those things people with JOBS use for a living! It is because their shit is reasonably well designed, works 99% of the time as opposed to 10%, and we can get our shit done and move on to the next project we are getting PAID for.
I gave up on Linux after trying unsuccessfully to install two different versions on my laptop and getting the video to work. It was Comedy Gold, I tell you. Friends recommended downloading driver after driver after patch after patch (“Oh, duh, you have version 9.2.3.alpha.a13.CodeWombat - you should have downloaded 9.2.3.alpha.b1e+28.CodeAssGoblin”) When of course that didn’t work, my choices given to me were:
Learn to code video drivers from assembly language and over the next few years write my own driver, or
Download some hack from a Polish warez site which was bundled with a huge selection of hardcore MILF S&M (trust them, though, they know video drivers!), or
Join a web forum populated by Linux haxxors and over several months build up a lot of message board “cred” until you can ask one of them nicely to code a new device driver in exchange for something (like PCP, Burger King coupons, or else a clean urine sample), or
Buy a new laptop. “Only faggots and sailors use an obscure no-name brand like IBM!”
It was to laugh. 2 hours later XP Pro was installed and I was running fine.
Seriously, Open Office is great for determining how of the M$ mindset (aka. crazy) someone is. There are lots of great open source programs, but Open Office is a piece of shit. You’d need to be pretty high to try and use it for anything beyond the absolute basics, like writing a five page essay or something. Even then, it’d probably crash when you went to save-as.
Well…I have a client that is using LINUX in a VM environment (obviously the VMWare is not open source), using open source database without much trouble (integrating the SANS was the real trick, from what I understand). They are also using Nagio (and open source network monitoring system) and Cacti (open source SNMP monitor), plus all their documentation is deployed on a LINUX server (well, a LINUX VM) running an instance of Wikipedia’s open source (and free) software (it’s way cool btw…best technical and departmental documentation tool I’ve ever seen, bar none).
ETA: Open Office sucks btw…no doubt about that. The point though, is that not ALL open source software equally sucks, or is equally useless.
That’s just what Mikrosoft wants you to belieeeeve, man. Open source is the way to go because it’s free, and that makes it automatically better than anything that needs to be paid for. You’ve bought into the corporate lie, man.
Seriously, I can understand your frustration. There is some open source stuff that works well, and some that doesn’t; they’re nothing magically better about it because it’s open source.
It absolutely isn’t. Check my thread in GQ. I have posted a similar question on the Open Office forum, and no answers. Threads I have searched have yielded code that generates runtime errors. For a simple thing like opening a form from a button on another form, it is like fucking brain surgery, that so far, has resulted in the death of the patient. (runtime errors) So if you can enlighten me on how to do these SIMPLE AND VERY COMMON tasks in Base, I would be in your debt. I have spent three hours trying to add a table field to a form in Base and no luck.
I have been working with computers for 33 years now, have an IQ in the 140’s, and have used all manner of databases, so PLEASE, explain the suck, or STFU. Base is the worst software I have seen in a long time. As I said, I would have this project ready to ship in Access. Base has just wasted my time, frustrated me, and made me very angry.
So, please, if you can provide some guidance on my issues, and prove me wrong, go ahead. But i doubt that you can.
Well, I am responding to this using my HP Laptop under Ubuntu, because I just like to learn things, and I actually like linux as an operating system for everyday use, web browsing, word processing, etc. If there was more application software that was good for it, I wold use it. But gimp, while servicable, ain’t Photoshop, and there is nothing like Lighwave for 3D on it, so I still use XP on my desktop.
The laptop dual boots to Vista, but it has been months since I went there, as I only use it for surfing the web and siuch, but this Base is really a stinker as far as I can tell.
The only open source database system I’ve used is MySQL, which I’m sure you’re familiar with.
Perhaps a build of OpenOffice Base is more stable under a different environment? Have you tried running it on your other partition? How much of a frontend does the client ultimately need?
Important note: I studied finance. I don’t know much about databases beyond those needs, which is basically a combination of vb and LAMP.
On the other posts … seeing the GQ thread notice the error. OpenOffice isn’t “linux stuff” Its a steaming pile of sun crap Unfortunately the “Crap” component of software seems to be cross platform.
I do feel your pain about obnoxious linux users, and I am a windows free since win98 linux user.
I have yet to run into a single person with a good thing about Base.
Is MySQL still open source? I like it. And I do like Open Source software (my online art gallery uses about 30,000 lines of PHP code linked to a MySQL database, and I wrote it all myself), but I do tire of the Open Source Evangelicals.
What would you do for a frontend for the MySQL server? Does the client have an intranet you can run a web interface on? Do you need to make an application?
I assumed you wanted to use Access/Base to make inputting/reporting easy for the client. I think mysql will give you trouble there on its own.
The current versions are still out there ( the open source ones ) and will always be open source. My read is the Oracle will kill the name … the question at this time is what of the 100 forks will become the new “normal”. In time your distro will move to there prefered “Not-MySql” and it will keep working.
Open Source Evangelicals I suppose are like Xian ones. The good ones put up a web page with “email X if you want info” the bad ones knock on your door at 3am and interrogate you about “WHY YOU ARE GOING TO HELL”
I’m not sure Stan Shmenge gets a pass on live and let live in this case. It looks like the customer wants X done in Y and he cant do it yet took the job. Then again customers ask for all kinds of crazy/impossible. Perhaps its time to adjust expectations or sub it out?
If you want a working open-source DB, you should be using PostgreSQL or SQLite. (and SVN, and TortoiseSVN, etc).
OpenOffice Writer is at the point that I’ll throw it on PC if it doesn’t have any version of Office, but anything beyond basic functionality for the rest of it, as you’ve found, sucks.
Don’t be a dipshit and knock everything just for that.
I was uner the impression that mySql was always web/server based. I have been working with it in that capacity. Do you mean to say I can use it to make standalone worksation apps? If so, hallelujah! I will switch immediately. Point me in that direction…
I am doing it “on spec” as a favor to the boss. If we have to change software, I could wangle that, but Access seems to be out. If mySql can make standalone apps, that would be a cinch for me, but as I said in my previous post, I thought it always was server based.
MySql is a sql database … like any other SQL database ( MSsql or Oracle for example ) just about any client application can make sql query’s against it.
This lists windows ODBC and .net connectors and docs on using in visual studio and a lot more that should be of interest to you.
I have to agree with the OP. I really wanted to like OO, because I hate Microsoft. I really hate Microsoft for docx. Now all of the sudden my students are sending me documents in a format I can’t read. I’m forced to buy software to read documents for secondary job that is more of a hobby. I tried OO, but it never reads anything right. OTOH TextEdit reads the document right, but it doesn’t translate the figures. How the fuck can TextEdit do a better job translating than what is supposed to be a fully functional Word Processor?
Unfortunately the “Crap” component of software seems to be cross platform.