FYI: The dangers of bad standards (was Re: viewer for doc files) (fwd)

From: Eugene Leitl (eugene@liposome.genebee.msu.su)
Date: Thu Mar 12 1998 - 05:09:38 MST


I've seen .doc documents in industrial, and even in scientific settings.
Very bad publishing practice.

'gene

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 11:15:23 -0800 (PST)
From: Eric Hoeltzel <eric@dogbert.sitewerks.com>
To: Suman_Saraf <ssaraf@hss.hns.com>
Cc: linux-admin@vger.rutgers.edu
Subject: Re: viewer for doc files

On Wed, 11 Mar 1998, Suman_Saraf wrote:

> Anyone aware of free utilities for Linux which allow you to
> view .DOC files from Word pr at least convert them to postscript ?

There are Word and Excel viewers available on microsoft's
site that run well under wine.

http://www.microsoft.com/msoffice/msword/internet/viewer/default.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/msoffice/msexcel/internet/viewer/default.htm

There are both 16 and 32 bit versions, I have only run the
16 bit version, but the 32 might work with wine too.

These are nasty ugly dangerous file formats though. All
organizations should be encouraged to regard .doc and .xls
files as badware, potential trojans and virus spreaders. It's
easy to forge mail to a clueless windows user, posing as
someone he/she trusts and convince them to run your custom
macro which drops various trojans around and waits for
a domain admin who doesn't understand the PATH cruft under
NT. Shortly you will have admin access to the domain.

Regards,
Eric



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