6.0-RELEASE as an office desktop?

[Boris Samorodov]

On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 14:57:04 -0500 James B. Van Bokkelen wrote:

> I am using a Dell D610 laptop as a dual-purpose machine.  The current
> release of the product I'm working on uses FreeBSD 6.0-RELEASE, and
> I am building kernels and applications using it.  With this machine,
> I am trying to get away from using WinXP for mail and office documents.

You may consider using a FreeBSD-security branch. It contains some
patches (not many) concerning security goals. (IE you may use a
RELENG_6_0 tag at your cvsup configuration file.)

> I installed the distributed Gnome 2-2.10.2 and generally like it.
> Because Gnome's mail tools don't do IMAP with local mail storage for
> off-line use, I installed the thunderbird-1.0.6 package. It is usable,
> but has problems fixed in 1.0.7 or 1.5.  I attempted to build 1.5 from
> ports, and while the result worked, shared library changes apparently
> broke Gnome, so I reinstalled 6.0-RELEASE and went back to 1.0.6.
> Finally, it appears that no Open Office package is available for
> 6.0-RELEASE (1.0.3_6 wants much older ORBit and glib).  I started to
> build OO from ports, but the makefile warned me it needed 9GB free,
> which would require another cycle of re-installation to obtain.

> So, it appears that I'm stalled.  Building from ports introduces
> library skew issues which compromise the machine as a development
> environment.  But obtaining Open Office for 6.0-RELEASE appears to
> raise the bar beyond what I can justify to get shut of Windows.

6.1-RELEASE is coming. There are many changes at the ports tree as
well. You shouldn't mix an old applications from ports with a new one.

> I know the volunteer nature of this - the first software I released
> under a "copyleft" was for DECUS in the early 1980s.  But I would like
> to suggest that future RELEASE distributions have a goal that a usable
> office desktop environment be obtainable in a straightforward way,
> either from the distribution CDs, or via the net using 'pkg_add -r'.
> The 6.0-RELEASE Gnome comes close, but the lack of a canned Open Office
> should, IMO, be remedied.

> And in the mean time, if anyone wanted to supply me a clue or two, or
> point me at a package built for 6.0-RELEASE for either Open Office
> 2.x or Thunderbird 1.5, I would be quite pleased.

You may upgrade your port's tree (either portsnap or cvsup).
Then install (reinstall, upgrade) you port's applications. You may use
portupgrade (or some other tool) to do this. Both thunderbird-1.5 and
OO-2.0 work like a charm for us. Well, yes, it's not an hour task to
build OO...


WBR
-- 
Boris B. Samorodov, Research Engineer
InPharmTech Co,     http://www.ipt.ru
Telephone & Internet Service Provider