User talk:Maryellen Grady

== A Good Word-Processing Program Is Mutual Symbiosis With A Writer

I have been suffering since I starting experimenting with flavors of Linux Live C.D.'s because most of them leave me without the proper tools of my writing trade. In fact, I have resorted to writing on some odds and ends that don't have editing capabilities, can't be saved and are lost in the end. I just want to take notes, write articles, write manuscripts and, I'll be frank, Office Org's suite is not right.

When I say "not right" I mean it the way people say those words and roll their eyes when indicating that someone may be mentally cloudy or at the other end of the spectrum and plain psychotic. Office Org software falls into the latter category. It has a mind and will of its own. It cannot be trusted to copy and paste a few lines or a paragraph because it tears up pages and pages and then embeds those unwanted duplicates so deeply into the document you can't remove them. Some ghostwriter's sideline notes and margin directions get printed as well. You no longer are in charge of the document you were writing. It is fini. A fine mess made by evil Open Org software once again and this is my consistent experience with the brand. I mean sometimes it destroys my documents in more complicated and time-wasting ways, but the end result is always the same. I am left without even a rough draft of a document I might have spent hours writing.

I hate the son of bitchin' thing, the horse it rode in on, and I'm not too fond of whoever it was that decided it was a good idea to go with this software for Linux. Obviously this decision maker was not a writer.

Tonight I needed to write a simple flyer. Open Org cannot be trusted with any formatting that is not straight lines across and no tabs. I could not stand the thought of wasting hours and producing nothing, so I went to the Ubuntu Software Center to see what I could find.

Now the problem I have had with both the Software Center and the Repository (a joke if you don't mind my saying so), is that I never end up with the things I order. I have ordered Abiword multiple times and never received it. I try very hard to get some of this software without using the Repository to install it, but the distributors make it difficult for Linux users to download and install like anyone else. Invariably I end up wasting more time watching the Repository load up over 100 packages as usual in the hopes that my one package of a decent word processor might actually be among them and might even get installed. Never happens.

Same thing for Ubuntu Software. Tonight I was happy to request a gnome office suite and ask to have it installed. I watched it being installed. That was the last I ever saw of it.

Now this KDE I got from the same place, was quickly installed and immediately appeared on my menu. It is here for me to use after I get through with the usual Linux anal-retentive rigamorole and registering nonsence. I can only pray it is many steps up from Open Org.

What's the deal with Knoppix's note and text paper Leafwind or whatever it is called? You can't easily save it or file it as anything that can be opened again. It also has few editing tools.

I just wish I had a computer loose-leaf notebook and a pen that could copy and paste.

But for now I have some hope for KDE or I'm going back to writing on a Selectric electric typewriter with little or no word processing abilities and a lot fewer headaches.

Good day to you.

P.S. As long as I'm griping, will I have to go the rest of my Linux using days with no flash like most all Linux users? It's quite annoying.