OpenOffice free software

[shiv]

Text To Columns is a little funky too.  Otherwise no problems.

[Stalwart]

OO is great, surprised Microsoft hasn't successfully shut em down.

If they were making money on it I believe there would then be an issue.

<Twilight Zone Music> Warbirds FreeHost Déjà vu </Twilight Zone Music>

[dedalos]

OpenOffice is a great software package.   I think Microsoft leaves them alone because hardly anyone uses it.  Yes, it's true it does everything MS office does, but for some reason most people will always want the name brand and not even give the alternative a try.

But I guess that is good for those of us that are willing to give it try. 

Heh, when MS decides to take them out it will be just too easy.  All MS has to do is keep changing their file formats rendering OO incompatible with MS.  By the time OO caches up, MS changes format again, and again and again.  Results?  A bunch of frustrated OO customers that now are wishing they had the MS product.  MS really wants the corporations to buy their licenses.  If a bunch of us want to use OO makes no difference to them.  Oh, yeah, and the amount of home Linux users that use OO has to be in the 100s? lol.

In a way, OO is working for MS.  If it gets too big, MS takes them out and gets the customers.  If not, well, it does not matter.  However, as long as OO is out there it prevents others from entering the market.  Not a good business decision to go compete for market share with MS and a free product.

[Shuffler]

Open source is huge.

If MS decides to change their format, the one suffering most would be MS itself. They are much like the government. They have issues with things that seem to be the most simple to fix.

[dedalos]

Open source is huge.

If MS decides to change their format, the one suffering most would be MS itself. They are much like the government. They have issues with things that seem to be the most simple to fix.

 

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Heh, when MS decides to take them out it will be just too easy.  All MS has to do is keep changing their file formats rendering OO incompatible with MS.  By the time OO caches up, MS changes format again, and again and again.  Results?  A bunch of frustrated OO customers that now are wishing they had the MS product.  MS really wants the corporations to buy their licenses.  If a bunch of us want to use OO makes no difference to them.  Oh, yeah, and the amount of home Linux users that use OO has to be in the 100s? lol.

In a way, OO is working for MS.  If it gets too big, MS takes them out and gets the customers.  If not, well, it does not matter.  However, as long as OO is out there it prevents others from entering the market.  Not a good business decision to go compete for market share with MS and a free product.

Lol you're wrong. If MS would start changing formats every IT admin would get so frustrated with having to constantly repatch, update or even worse, buy new versions that they'd ditch Office in a heartbeat and use the stable OOO instead. 

[dedalos]

Lol you're wrong. If MS would start changing formats every IT admin would get so frustrated with having to constantly repatch, update or even worse, buy new versions that they'd ditch Office in a heartbeat and use the stable OOO instead. 

I am thinking you and Shuf not really in the IT business eh?  Do you or your IT guy get really frustrated every time HT has a patch?  Pretty painless right?  The other thing you don;t know is that a big company could care less about how frustrated their IT guys get.  They will work on a week end if they have to to get it done, but not necessary (look at HT patch example).  It is your lucky day!!!  More free knowledge for ya.  IT guys do not make these decisions.  I know, I know, hard to believe that the IT guy does not make the decisions at hmmm lets say Bank of America, CME, US Government etc 

[Shuffler]

You think someone has to be in the IT business to see that M$ has issues with it's own product from time to time?

It is obvious you like MO. I used it for years myself. OO is a great product for those not wanting to throw money at M$.

If M$ changes extensions there will be huge amounts of files with the old extensions. One could either convert all of those or use a program that will open them without conversion...... a program like OO.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I am thinking you and Shuf not really in the IT business eh?  Do you or your IT guy get really frustrated every time HT has a patch?  Pretty painless right?  The other thing you don;t know is that a big company could care less about how frustrated their IT guys get.  They will work on a week end if they have to to get it done, but not necessary (look at HT patch example).  It is your lucky day!!!  More free knowledge for ya.  IT guys do not make these decisions.  I know, I know, hard to believe that the IT guy does not make the decisions at hmmm lets say Bank of America, CME, US Government etc  

Lol I know for a fact that even current MS incompatabilities between versions are driving customers nuts. There's nothing painless about having to purchase licenses for a 100+ user base let alone have them updated just because MS or someone else wants to play monopoly. It costs businesses downtime and sheer money through licenses. In fact Google and OOO have inserted such pressure to MS that they've had to start to offer versions of Office free of charge.

Also, you don't seem to have any idea about the development rate the open community is capable of. The new file formats could be supported after a matter of days via a free update. OOO is already very appealing because it's the only way to keep using the good old GUI and not having to suffer from ribbon.

[dedalos]

Oh well, it is not possible to edumakate some people.  Who said anything about changing extensions or purchasing licenses?  That just proves how far away you guys are form the subject.  No, I am not in love with MO.  I use excel a few times a year and could not care less if it is MO or OO that I am using.  I am just trying to explain to you how easy it will be for MS to make OO go away.  Right now it serves a purpose to them.  You really think you can copy a product, even name it almost the same and MS would not be able to stop it if they wanted to?

If you find OO useful and does the job for you go ahead and use it.  But to think that the corporate America will switch to it is funny.  They have no reason to and no one is going to make a decision that could cost him his job for no reason.   Are you familiar with the saying "No one got fired for buying IBM?"  It does not mean that IBM had the better product, but if something went wrong, well, you went with who was considered the best.  You get to keep your job.  You go with OO and something goes wrong (Lawyers cant access case documents for a few days because the OO community did not catch up yet to a change MS made) your job is gone. 

But you guys know better 

[sluggish]

M$ fanboi...  First time ever...

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Oh well, it is not possible to edumakate some people.  Who said anything about changing extensions or purchasing licenses?  That just proves how far away you guys are form the subject.  No, I am not in love with MO.  I use excel a few times a year and could not care less if it is MO or OO that I am using.  I am just trying to explain to you how easy it will be for MS to make OO go away.  Right now it serves a purpose to them.  You really think you can copy a product, even name it almost the same and MS would not be able to stop it if they wanted to?

If you find OO useful and does the job for you go ahead and use it.  But to think that the corporate America will switch to it is funny.  They have no reason to and no one is going to make a decision that could cost him his job for no reason.   Are you familiar with the saying "No one got fired for buying IBM?"  It does not mean that IBM had the better product, but if something went wrong, well, you went with who was considered the best.  You get to keep your job.  You go with OO and something goes wrong (Lawyers cant access case documents for a few days because the OO community did not catch up yet to a change MS made) your job is gone. 

But you guys know better 

Heh you're quite funny. You do realize that by making it's own Office versions incompatible MS would create the same exact trouble to all its own existing user base as it would to OOO users? Only difference would be that OOO users would get the update free of charge and all MO users would probably have to pay for it. So no, that kind of game would shoot them into their own leg bigtime. They're already fighting hard to find justification for the price of MO. Corporate America may move slowly, business directors usually do not understand IT at all and this affects the decision making. If the management is buttered by MS of course they'll stick to MO. If they consult their IT professionals they might turn not only to OOO but linux

Just out of curiosity, what's your position in the business at the moment?

[Shuffler]

But to think that the corporate America will switch to it is funny.  They have no reason to and no one is going to make a decision that could cost him his job for no reason.   Are you familiar with the saying "No one got fired for buying IBM?"  It does not mean that IBM had the better product, but if something went wrong, well, you went with who was considered the best.  You get to keep your job.  You go with OO and something goes wrong (Lawyers cant access case documents for a few days because the OO community did not catch up yet to a change MS made) your job is gone. 

You failed to read what I posted.

The lawyer can access all his documents with OO. He only has to wait if he is using MS. They have to be converted to the new extension. All the files already saved would be of the old extension.

[dedalos]

Heh you're quite funny. You do realize that by making it's own Office versions incompatible MS would create the same exact trouble to all its own existing user base as it would to OOO users? Only difference would be that OOO users would get the update free of charge and all MO users would probably have to pay for it. So no, that kind of game would shoot them into their own leg bigtime. They're already fighting hard to find justification for the price of MO. Corporate America may move slowly, business directors usually do not understand IT at all and this affects the decision making. If the management is buttered by MS of course they'll stick to MO. If they consult their IT professionals they might turn not only to OOO but linux

Just out of curiosity, what's your position in the business at the moment?

IT director for a proprietary trading firm.  We are using both Linux and Windows as the reasons to pick systems is not our feelings towards one company or another, but what they are best at.  You?  

What you stated above is naive.  MS has that problem now.  Older versions don;t read the new formats.  Latest versions read all, so all you would have to do is keep up with the patches.  And no, MS would not charge you if that was the game they wanted to play.  Don;t forget, this is all under the assumption that MS wanted to take out OO using this method.  They can take them out legally also.  I ll ask you again, how painful is it to apply patches from HT?  You think a company like MS could not accomplish that?  What if they start encoding the file formats?  Sure OO will catch up eventualy but after how long?
How legal would that be?  Do I want to deal with all this as a company?  Or is it going to be free like Linux?  (I think our bills are pretty hefty for that "free" os).

In either case, we have so many other things to worry about here that a move from MS to OO would not only be a waste of time but I would fire my self for even thinking about that    What exactly does it accomplish or fix?  I have no complains from anyone about MO or they just don;t tell me lol.

Let me know when Bank of America or the CME or some other big company switches to OO  

BTW, do you do web development by any chance?

[dedalos]

You failed to read what I posted.

The lawyer can access all his documents with OO. He only has to wait if he is using MS. They have to be converted to the new extension. All the files already saved would be of the old extension.

Shuff, really,    Let it go man.

It was just an example.  Lets say, Lawyer A sends documents to Lawyer B.  Lawyer A just created the documents in the latest version of MO.  OO does not have the new formats yet.  What do you do?  Why depend your business on how fast people working for free deliver a solution.  I am not saying one is better than the other.  I am saying there is no reason to take the risk for a company since it does not accomplish anything for them.  If I changed to OO at home right now it saves me nothing since I already have MO.  I have no reason to switch to it as a company since nothing is broken.  So, what is the point?