Letters

I made a small mistake in my Linksys ProConnect 4-CPU switch review (March). The current models do not have a console serial mouse port, only a PS/2 port. They do have serial mouse ports for connecting to the computers you wish to control, though.

I apologize for not catching the discrepancy between the manual and the actual switch. That brings the error count in the instruction manual up to two.

I realize the review has already been published, so maybe you could run this in the Letters section of an upcoming issue.

—Ralph Krause rkrause@netperson.net

I'm still migrating my business, which involves lots of letter and report writing, from NT to Linux, and so found the February story “LaTeX for Secretaries” to be timely. Three things I'd add for anyone contemplating LaTeX for day-to-day office chores are:

One, Lyx is a front end for LaTeX that helped ease the transition for me. I suspect a KDE-flavored version of Lyx, called KLyx, might be good, too.

Two, word2x is a terrific little program that converts MS Word documents into ASCII format. Of course, all that formatting is lost in the process, but at least you can get the content. I'm forced to use this far too often because MS Word seems to dominate the non-Linux world.

Three, Leslie Lamport's ancient but still excellent book LATEX: A Document Preparation System (1994, Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.) provides, as near as I can tell, everything there is to know about LaTeX in a friendly format.

—Mark Barnes mbarnes@pacifier.com

Consistent technical accuracy and depth of information in the Linux Journal is a pleasure to see. I find the depth of the articles and the resource sections better than any book I have purchased on Linux. Of course, there is nothing like reading the man page and /usr/doc/ files. The combination of my subscription for the past three years and the database search on Linux Journal Interactive (/) provides a very convenient and efficient way of locating articles to implement software solutions without having to sift through the table of contents of each journal on my shelf. I just wish I had subscribed earlier!

—Kevin Georgison keving@freenet.mb.ca

Your February 2000 issue had a small article about Jabber, an open-source instant messaging system. While I don't want to start our own instant messaging war, I would like to point out that Everybuddy is another alternative. This (http://www.everybuddy.com/) is an open-source client that today supports AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), ICQ, Microsoft and Yahoo.

—David C. Brown, N2RJTn2rjt@localnet.com

Just wanted to let you know about an error in the February issue. In the feature article, “Gnome, Its State and Future”, there is an error on page 87. The paragraph entitled “The AbiWord Word Processor” states that “[you] can run the same word processor across UNIX, Win32, BeOS and MacOS.” This is not true. According to the AbiSource web site, on the FAQ page, there is a clear statement under the heading, “Will it work on my computer?”: “Currently, AbiWord does not work on a Macintosh.”

I'd appreciate a clarification in the next issue. I'd also like to say that, although I'm new to Linux, your magazine is one of the few that I read cover-to-cover every month. Congratulations!

—Patrick Beart patrick@WebArchitecture.com

Here is the state of AbiWord for the Macintosh. About three weeks ago, a group of four people got together, engaged in a flurry of activity, and got AbiWord to compile on MacOS. Of course, you cannot do anything with it except admire the created executable. This was a tremendous step forward. Of course, now is when the hard work begins.

—Robert Sievers bob@abisource.com

Here are my responses to a couple of letters in the February 2000 issue:

Concerning “Ads, Ads, Ads” from Kyle E. Wright, I disagree. I very much like to see the ads in your magazine. So long as you are expanding the magazine and not trading the space with content (which you confirmed), I think it's great. I like to know what's available for my Linux system, and I usually see a product or two each month that I'm interested in. I say, get as many ads as you can—the more money you make, the better your magazine can become.

Concerning “Too Much Red Hat?” from Can Bican, I also disagree. Red Hat is the leader, and as such has more news, more goings-on, etc. I don't mind hearing about them and I certainly don't mind making money in the stock market on Linux companies. Keep the news coming.

—John Dawson jdawson@tcainternet.com