Linux Apps On Mac, Spreadsheets, & Rom!

[Daryl Watson]

Part I - LINUX APPS ON MAC

For me, one use for the Zaurus that is a must have is a spreadsheet, that ideally I could also run on my Mac PowerPC G4. This would enable me to transfer files and open them directly on the mac, and edit, print and backup the files.

I have a copy of Microsoft Office for Mac on the computer and I'm also running Excel.

I'd like to install some spreadsheet software to test it to decide what spreadsheet to use, and subesequently, what ROM to flash my Zaurus to (I am currently waiting to receive a Zaurus 3200 from PriceJapan).

Has anybody used fink to install linux apps on their mac? Is it safe to use? Is it reliable?

Part II - SOFTWARE

I have also come across a range of spreadsheet programs that run on a Zaurus.
- Hancom Sheet (Sharp ROM)
- Gnumeric (pdaXROM)
- Open Office Spreadsheet (Mac)

Can anyone point to reviews of this software, or suggest a spreadsheet based on their experience?

PART II - ROM
I understand that the range of ROMs are:

TRIsoft ROM
SGARP ROM
Open Zaurus / Open Embedded
Open BSD
Debian
pdaXROM
Cacko ROM

FINALE!
Some suggestions I have already received are to link up to the Mac some people have suggested running:
- Open Office on the Zaurus, with Neo Office on the Mac
- Gnumeric on the Zaurus and the Mac, (on a pdaXROM)

I'm at a bit of a loss however, trying to make a decision, because:
(a) I know very little about linux and this is all rather new to me, and
( I'd like to use the software before fiddling around with the Zaurus installing it.


I'm feeling paralysed by choice - could anyone else shed light on this issue?

Regards,
Daryl

[tapjpa]

I am also a MAC/Zaurus user, I am also awaiting delivery of a 3200 from PriceJapan but have been using a 1000 for a while now with the CACKO 1.23 ROM.
For spreadsheets on the MAC I'm using Excel and Hancom Sheet on he Z with little to no problems so far. The little problems I have encountered have been mainly formating issues. Haven't tried Fink yet on my MAC so I can't attest to how well it works. For getting my Z to talk to the MAC I am using AJZaurusUSB-0.3.2 with no problems and it can be found here: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/26581

Hope this helped a bit,

Jim

[kopsis]

I use Fink on my PowerMac G5 to provide GNUCash which is probably my single most "mission critical" piece of application software. If Fink is reliable enough for that, Gnumeric should be no problem  Fink has a little bit of a learning curve (it's easier if you're familiar with Debian's "apt" package manager) but I found it easier than Darwin ports.

As for spreadsheets, I gave up on Hancom back in my SL-5500 days after it corrupted a couple of Excel format file that it created. However, bug fixes in newer versions of Hancom have likely improved it. The biggest problem is knowing what formatting, formulas, etc. will reliably convert. I've never seen that properly documented so it's a game of experience gained through trial and error.

With Gnumeric it's the same app on both sides so you have guaranteed 100% (or at least as close as slight version differences will allow) data portability (if you save in native format). Plus, Gnumeric's Excel export/import is a bit better understood than Hancom's, so if I actually did spreadsheets on the Z, that would be my choice.

[Daryl Watson]

Thanks Dave,

Gnumeric, from all accounts, sounds like a choice application, but I've had trouble finding a package and/or porting the software. I installed Fink and the package seemed to have errors, and I did the same with Darwin Ports (http://gnumeric.darwinports.com/) and suffered a similar fate. In the meantime I'll keep digging trying to find a package that works. I'm not up to scratch just yet with building a package from the source  but getting there.

I really can't handle formatting issues - it's too time consuming correcting them on a daily basis - so I'm steering away from Hancom.

I opened Neo Office and it's not the most attractive program and seemed sluggish on my system. The trick seems to be to get Gnumeric installed on the mac.

Any tricks or tips?

And BTW, does Gnumeric need to run on the pdaXROM or can it run on a variety of Roms on the Zaurus?

[kopsis]

If I have a few minutes to kill this weekend I'll try installing Gnumeric through Fink and see what happens. Note that I use Apple's X11 as opposed to the xfree86 in Fink. Another thing worth mentioning is that I only install from binary Fink packages ... I'm not concerned about bleeding edge versions so I don't bother with trying to install from Fink source packages. If you want to PM me with the specific Fink errors you're seeing, I might be able to offer some more specific suggestions.

Your experience with Neo Office mirrors mine. It's usable on my big G5 box, but pretty painful on my G4 iBook. I really *want* to like Neo/Open Office, but for work I need 100% MS Office compatibility and it's just not there. For personal use it's just far too "heavy" for my taste so I always find myself going back to faster, simpler apps.

As for ROMs that can run Gnumeric, pdaXrom runs it "out of the box". OE supports it (at least the X11 flavors of OE) but I don't know how much work it is to get all that going. It is possible to run it on some Sharp compatible ROMs if you get a Qt X11 environment set up, but if it's going to be a frequently used app, the inefficiency of that approach will get frustrating. I'm a big fan of pdaXrom, but OE is a great choice too. I'd suggest going with one of those two.

[Daryl Watson]

Ok,

There goes the weekend!

Spreadsheet bonanza:

Via the linux baptism by fire method i have discovered that

- NeoOffice was slow and sluggish

And with X11, installing gnumeric via fink that:

- gnumeric is smooth and fast, but the binary version available through fink is from 2004, and lacks print capabilities (and there are bugs there). This was a major turn off for me.

On aesthetics and a review (no source sorry):

- KSpred just didn't look developed enough so I skipped an install.

Via direct download that opens via X11

- the Open Office X11 version is fast to start up and smooth and feels great.

If I can easily run that on the Zaurus without having to lose a lot of other applications I'll be very happy.

Is it true it's a power hog? All considered that ranks currently as the best of the crop.

Any other thoughts on that before moving onto --

Investigating the ROMs...

o.k., maybe later this week..

Thanks Dave for your posts and messages. Things are starting to make sense now.

Regards,
D

[Meanie]

Ok,

There goes the weekend!

Spreadsheet bonanza:

Via the linux baptism by fire method i have discovered that

- NeoOffice was slow and sluggish

And with X11, installing gnumeric via fink that:

- gnumeric is smooth and fast, but the binary version available through fink is from 2004, and lacks print capabilities (and there are bugs there). This was a major turn off for me.

On aesthetics and a review (no source sorry):

- KSpred just didn't look developed enough so I skipped an install.

Via direct download that opens via X11

- the Open Office X11 version is fast to start up and smooth and feels great.

If I can easily run that on the Zaurus without having to lose a lot of other applications I'll be very happy.

Is it true it's a power hog? All considered that ranks currently as the best of the crop.

Any other thoughts on that before moving onto --

Investigating the ROMs...

o.k., maybe later this week..

Thanks Dave for your posts and messages. Things are starting to make sense now.

Regards,
D
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well, if you get gnumeric running on your mac, then its the most versatile solution because it runs on several zaurus distros, ie pdaxrom, oz/gpe and even sharp/cacko with x/qt.

openoffice on the other hand is a very great app and runs very fast on a pc and mac, some people claim it to be slow but they probably misconfigured it. oo loads within 3 seconds on my old celeron with 512mb ram, but the trick is to have lots of memory because its quite a memory hog. unfortunately, ths means it takes ages to load on the zaurus because the z only has 64mb and hence needs to do a lot of swapping to disk with the sd/cf being rather slow compared to a hdd and real memory.

oo on your mac and gnunmeric on the z may be a solution, but i am not sure how well the conversion is between the different programs.

[ralphrmartin]

I swap spreadhseets between my Mac and Zaurus all the time.

I use Excel on the Mac and Hancom Sheet on the Zaurus (an 860 with Sharp ROM).

It basically works fine - but my sheets are plain data, no formulae or fancy formats. The main problems with Hancom Sheet are its slow spped for searching, and sorting, and scrolling, with largish spreadsheets (mine run to about 2000 lines of 7 or 8 columns - about 300k big).

I use a compact flash wifi card to transfer the data rapidly.

Fink works fine for me. Get FinkCommander to manage it - it makes things a lot easier.

[kopsis]

Daryl,

Note that there is a much more recent version of Gnumeric in DarwinPorts. Now that you have Fink working, you should have all the prerequisites (X11User and XCode) for DarwinPorts so you may want to give that a try. It is possible for Fink and DarwinPorts to coexist but if all you're using from Fink right now is Gnumeric, you may just want to uninstall Fink before trying DarwinPorts.