3 ms·

Could we actually develop a serious 'fake Windows' layer to assist the hundreds of thousands of Windows-based organisations off Windows and onto Linux? Somethin

Could we actually develop a serious 'fake Windows' layer to assist the hundreds of thousands of Windows-based organisations off Windows and onto Linux? Something which can seamlessly Wine the applications and effectively be free of all the Microsoft excess. I'm not too in the know about why Windows to Linux transition processes usually fail in governments etc., however, it could be that a very adequate and seamless replacement would help a great deal.

soco 2y ago
Office files compatibility kill it usually. As much as your organization can rely on ODF, external or old files will usually be DOC/X and there's where the fun stops, people get frustrated and as soon as you have a person with decision power frustrated, it's buh-bye Linux damn those transition taxpayer-supported costs.
- einpoklum 2y ago
  So, basically, a key, if not the key, component would be the import and output filters for Microsoft Office formats: OOXML (DOCX, PPTX, XLSX mostly); DOC; RTF; XLS; PPT. These formats have been reverse-engineered enough to sorta-kinda open them, but there are still lots of bugs. The root of the hierarchy is here: https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=MSO-Formats https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=MSO-Form... and there are 2128 open bugs... it's true that many are quite esoteric, but some aren't. Want to do your share to help resolve them and rearch perfect MS Office compatibility and replaceability? * Contribute effort/skill: https://whatcanidoforlibreoffice.org/#!/progornoprog/design https://whatcanidoforlibreoffice.org/#!/progornoprog/design * Contribute money: https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/ https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/ * And even just filing compatibility bugs - helps
  - paulryanrogers 2y ago
    Since even Microsoft can't keep perfect bug-for-bug compatibility among its multi-platform Office implementations, this is unlikely to succeed or even reach parity. And people do rely on bugs and quirks in the official implementations. I salute the effort, but a better path may be to infiltrate schools so the new generation demands non-Microsoft solutions.
    - einpoklum 2y ago
      I would say the two courses of actions are complementary rather than contradictory, especially since most SW developers aren't also teachers or education activists / parents' association members etc.
  - RajT88 2y ago
    I have been loving the ironically named, "ClosedXML" power shell module
- LorenDB 2y ago
  Hot take, but I think this could be best addressed not by creating conversion tools, but by getting Office to work perfectly under Wine.
robertlagrant 2y ago
Amazon have an interesting equivalent where they have a translation layer for SQL Server on their Aurora database[0]. [0] https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/babelfish https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/babelfish
sceptic123 2y ago
> why Windows to Linux transition processes usually fail Would expect this to be down to security teams expertise, _enterprise_ software and AD integration rather than the end users/specific software.

soco 2y ago

Office files compatibility kill it usually. As much as your organization can rely on ODF, external or old files will usually be DOC/X and there's where the fun stops, people get frustrated and as soon as you have a person with decision power frustrated, it's buh-bye Linux damn those transition taxpayer-supported costs.

einpoklum 2y ago
So, basically, a key, if not the key, component would be the import and output filters for Microsoft Office formats: OOXML (DOCX, PPTX, XLSX mostly); DOC; RTF; XLS; PPT. These formats have been reverse-engineered enough to sorta-kinda open them, but there are still lots of bugs. The root of the hierarchy is here: https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=MSO-Formats https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=MSO-Form... and there are 2128 open bugs... it's true that many are quite esoteric, but some aren't. Want to do your share to help resolve them and rearch perfect MS Office compatibility and replaceability? * Contribute effort/skill: https://whatcanidoforlibreoffice.org/#!/progornoprog/design https://whatcanidoforlibreoffice.org/#!/progornoprog/design * Contribute money: https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/ https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/ * And even just filing compatibility bugs - helps
- paulryanrogers 2y ago
  Since even Microsoft can't keep perfect bug-for-bug compatibility among its multi-platform Office implementations, this is unlikely to succeed or even reach parity. And people do rely on bugs and quirks in the official implementations. I salute the effort, but a better path may be to infiltrate schools so the new generation demands non-Microsoft solutions.
  - einpoklum 2y ago
    I would say the two courses of actions are complementary rather than contradictory, especially since most SW developers aren't also teachers or education activists / parents' association members etc.
- RajT88 2y ago
  I have been loving the ironically named, "ClosedXML" power shell module
LorenDB 2y ago
Hot take, but I think this could be best addressed not by creating conversion tools, but by getting Office to work perfectly under Wine.

robertlagrant 2y ago

Amazon have an interesting equivalent where they have a translation layer for SQL Server on their Aurora database[0]. [0] https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/babelfish https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/babelfish

sceptic123 2y ago

> why Windows to Linux transition processes usually fail Would expect this to be down to security teams expertise, _enterprise_ software and AD integration rather than the end users/specific software.