[X Newbies] Ms office/Open office

[Barry Lyden]

Christopher,

No, it is not complicated. X11 just opens up another world of possibilities,
which most mac users probably won't ever use, or ever need to use. If this
is something you really want to try, then don't let the warnings spook you,
but do proceed smartly and prepare yourself against mistakes, just like you
would for any other software installation. What I mean is, make sure you
have your system properly backup up at all times, and ask questions when in
doubt. I don't know how many old UNIX hacks there are on this particular
list, but those of us who are here will help.

X11 is a windowing environment. It is highly extensible, programmable, and
customizable. But, you can download it, install it, and run it with no
knowledge of how it actually works. What they're warning you about is that
since X11 can be extensively customized, unless you know what you are doing,
you can screw things up, but not usually anything that can't be undone by
just quitting X11. So there is no reason why you can't download X11, install
it, and run it, without doing anything else with it. Then download and
install OpenOffice and run it. That should be it.

Barry


On 1/25/04 3:37 AM, "Christopher Hack" <cjhack at onetel.net.uk> wrote:

> Following the discussions on alternatives to Ms Office. I would love to try
> using OpenOffice. However when I have read that the version for OSX requires
> "X11". I also read on a website it is advisable not to start trying to use
> X11 unless you know what you are doing.
> Can anyone explain to me why this is all so complicated, and if there eis
> anyway simply to download it and use it. Thanks. Chris.