fedora-list Digest, Vol 7, Issue 215

[Mark Eggers]

> Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 09:14:23 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Chuck Carson <rhugga at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Does Corss Over Office Work on FC2?
> To: Fedora Core Mailing List <fedora-list at redhat.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> 
> Before I waste any time, I was wondering if Crossover office worked on FC2?
> 
> Thx,
> rhugga

More or less.  Since I don't have any experience with Crossover Office
on other Linux platforms, I don't know if you can say it works better or
worse on Fedora Core 2.

The good:

1. Office 2000/Pro seems to run although I haven't stress-tested it.
This is "unfortunately" important since most companies want my resume in
Microsoft Word document format.  There are some subtle differences in
font and layout between OpenOffice's representation of a Word document
and Word's representation.  This has the effect of making my full two
page resume extend to three pages.

2. Enterprise Architect (a UML modeling tool) runs OK under Crossover
Office.  I can create and document software models.

3. Yahelite (a Yahoo chat client) runs OK.  I do not get sound in chat,
but other than that it is functional.

The bad:

1. Internet Explorer 6 runs poorly.  Screen updates and refreshes are
bad.  I use this to make sure web pages I write work in IE, and
sometimes there are inconsistencies.

2. Screen refreshes are really slow.  I have an NVidia 5700LE with 256
MB video ram on an AGP 4x card.  Screen flicker is noticeable at 1024 x
768 x 24.

3. Incremental updates of Enterprise Architect do not work.  I have to
remove and install every time a new upgrade comes out (unlike Windows).

4. Running programs under Crossover office is piggish.  I have a Dell
8200 running at 2 GHz with 768 MB memory, and it struggles.  I have a
lot of things running in the background (Tomcat, MySQL, PostgreSQL), but
the native applications are much faster.

The ugly:

1. Windows media player (latest version) does not work.

2. Yahelite performance is spotty at best.  I frequently have to
simulate a Windows reboot or Crossover Office reset with this software.

3. Screen refresh is poor, and sometimes not complete.  The only
solution I have found for this is to minimize a window and then open it
again.

4. CPU load is pretty ghastly.  It's not uncommon to see load averages
of 3 and above (1 minute averages) while running software under
CrossOver Office.

In short, if you occasionally need light office support this seems to be
a reasonable way to go.  I've done some spreadsheets, light word
processing, and messaging.  I've also struggled with using Enterprise
Architect (my primary reason for using Crossover Office), and I'm to the
point where I am thinking of rebuilding my Windows/2000 Professional
machine just for that application.  Either that, or finding another
reasonably-priced feature rich UML tool . . .

I could not imagine playing games of any sort with Crossover Office.  I
understand there's another emulation package (Cedega ??) that is
designed to support games.  Fortunately, I'm not more than an occasional
game player, and UT2004 was released for Linux.

The above is just my opinion.  Your mileage may vary.

/mde/
just my two cents . . . .