I decided to keep the best of two worlds: I kept the OS X installed (no Debian or NetBSD on this system!). Thus I can still use Excel that is unfortunately absolutely necessary for anyone studying economics and business administration. Of course one can probably calculate everything with OpenOffice Calc, but using OpenOffice at home just does not help me in learning for the spreadsheet exam I have to pass using Excel in the computer lab at the school.
For word processing and some occasional hacking, I decided to install Aquamacs. For typesetting the texts, I installed MacTeX.
As I have too much old boxes in my room in the dorm, I decided not to install more open source apps in the eMac. At the moment I mostly use the Debian box (eVectra 1 GHz, 256 Mb RAM) in the console mode using a ssh connection. The box is not connected to a monitor or to a keyboard, but it does have a pair of loadspeakers for playing my collection of ogg files ripped with ripit. In addition, the Debian box is used for doing some math with GNU Octave.
I am sure, there are many readers who would just "liberate" the eMac but, alas, we are not living in a perfect world where we could freely decide which software to use. The world is a dirty place, just like Ivo Welch writes in Corporate Finance: An Introduction after a discussion of finance in perfect markets:
The real world is definitely dirtier than our perfect one, and you can't just close your eyes and wish you were still in Kansas.
6 comments:
This is very frustrating... I have to run Windows for some complicated macros with VBA. Also, my University forces me to use Internet Explorer for a Spanish web app.
Thanks for this post. These days, we live in a world where closed source can still be a necessity but hopefully it's only a matter of time before open source conquers all.
Manual comment spamming...
I run a charity that refurbishes computers for families and other charities in our community. http://computersforcharity.webs.com/
We love eMacs, and the old iMacs. These make great systems to Install the Qimo OS on for Kids. Qimo is based on Xubutu and works great with the older hardware.
Anyone who wants to liberate these great systems should check our website and see if you can donate instead!
Hi! Love your blog. But: you're having a longer gap that usual. You OK? Blog still active?
Thx! :)
--GG
Still alive and OK. My second year in the business school is busier than what I expected - and as I try to study a five year program in two and half years I have even less free time.
I hope to have more time for the blog during the next weeks!
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