OpenOffice free software

[MrRiplEy[H]]

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?

Well I'm a co-owner in a software development company. I don't know about America but back here the current system is already causing so much trouble and costs that many communal, educational and even corporate players are migrating to OOO, Google, Staroffice or other derivatives from Mac side for example. More and more messages are coming from the field on migrating fully to linux or Mac. Only those systems are left on MS that are absolutely necessary to maintain for compatibility and even then often virtualized.

The tide is turning. Slowly, but it's turning.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

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?

About 95% of companies at present time are not related to banking or law. Small businesses can sacrifice a little in order to save some money on licenses. Perhaps you're a bit accustomed to your own working enviroment there?

[Getback]

I'm a little hesitant to use OpenOffice. I believe the JAVA may be prone to attacks.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I'm a little hesitant to use OpenOffice. I believe the JAVA may be prone to attacks.

If security is your worry you shouldn't be using windows in the first place

[Shuffler]

If you work for a large elephant of a firm then your probably not going to be able to adjust much in any timely fashion. Your stuck in the same old hole the government is in.

To the OP..... try OO and I think you'll like it.

[dedalos]

About 95% of companies at present time are not related to banking or law. Small businesses can sacrifice a little in order to save some money on licenses. Perhaps you're a bit accustomed to your own working enviroment there?

Ok, now at list we have a reason for your thinking.  Yes, I am a bit accustomed on my working environment.  (BTW Suff, we dont do word processing here and we are not a white elephant.  160 people, 21 IT, everything proprietary).  So, I will agree with you.  Given what you said on your other post, it does make sense for you to use it since it involves Mac, Linux, and probably a smaller company or start up.  Yes, if you can start fresh and if it is free it may make sense (btw, that also makes you baist to your environment  ).  However, the big money in the US at list, is the big corporations that already have MO and they really have no reason to change.  Cost is not an issue to them when you compare it to the cost of making the change and retraining all your support stuff to maintain it and the problems after the conversion.  Not to mention your users needing time to adjust.  In addition, there is the Linux paradigm where it starts free and then you have to pay up the wazoo for support and patches.  So, if that is the road OO ends up in, there is one more reason to not make the change.

After all, this was an example of how a big company like MS could take out OO.  Not who is better.  BTW, if MS went to court, who is going to cover the legal fees of the people working on OO?  The community?

So, in your case and sufflers case it may make sense since it is free.  However, I fail to see how it is better than MO or why a company already using MO should waste the money, time and effort to converting.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

So, in your case and sufflers case it may make sense since it is free.  However, I fail to see how it is better than MO or why a company already using MO should waste the money, time and effort to converting.

As many parties see it, by skipping the inevitable next upgrade fees and cost.

Now I'm the last person to say there aren't problems with this migration OR that OOO is 100% compatible with MO. No. But this is clearly the message I'm starting to get more and more from the field. And my field is (locally) anything from international corporations to two men and a van. I do no work in US so I can't talk about your continent.

I don't see how MS could have a case in court against its competitor. Quite the contrary I think if it tried to suppress OOO, Apple, Oracle or others from competing (by preventing the use of file formats via encryption or litigation) it would be slammed with antitrust suites faster than a speeding bullet. Just recently the EU slammed the MS with hundreds of millions of euros fines for anticompetitive actions.

[caldera]

Wow, what a ruckus! 


I might never ask a question again. 

[Mustaine]

some of the formatting is different, and the overal feel can be odd sometimes (like I sometimes can't tell which cell is highlighted) but other than that it's great. I use it at home for everything..

[68Wooley]

The Word Processor does an OK job converting between Office 2003 - not so much 2007 and later. The spreadsheet and presentation packages don't convert from Excel / Powerpoint very well at all - one of the reasons I've just switched back to Windows after several years running Linux.

[Widewing]

More and more of our European customers are using Open Office, and according to one, local municipalities are adopting OO very quickly to offset licensing costs with MS products. It's also gaining popularity among small businesses here in the USA.

It's now very popular among college students, who would rather spend their limited software dollars on something besides MS Office.

[DREDIOCK]

One problem MS might run into should it keep endlessly changing as is suggested is the same little entity thats given them troubles in the past. Congress.
The other thing is it would be pointless for MS  to do so because OO would just simply follow suit.

[DREDIOCK]

More and more of our European customers are using Open Office, and according to one, local municipalities are adopting OO very quickly to offset licensing costs with MS products. It's also gaining popularity among small businesses here in the USA.

It's now very popular among college students, who would rather spend their limited software dollars on something besides MS Office.

Can confirm both. Both I and several other businesses I know use OO. Buddy of mine switched after another company he was doing business with sent him a document in OO native format and he had to install OO to open it. He liked both it and its pricetag so much. He made the switch.

When my son started college we looked into getting MS and were completely turned off by the price tag. So we went OO instead. Now most of his college friends use it as well.

When my daughter started Jr high there was a parent orientation of sorts they had at the beginning of the school year. during which they mentioned some things to the parents that the kids may need. course MS was recommended..Till I opened my mouth about the OO alternative. Now I know at least one teacher who suggests it as a low cost alternative and have had several parents thank me for turning them onto OO.

Im not a big fan of conglomerates who seem to think they should own the rights to everything. MS seems to fall into that catagory. So anything I can do to keep them knocked down a peg or two makes me a happy guy.

[RTHolmes]

my network is still running Office 2000, as I made a decision years ago not to upgrade unless there was a new feature we actually needed. it hasnt happened yet ... We will be moving to OO whenever Office 2000 ceases to be compatible (although since we still run XP Pro that may not happen until we move to Win7.)

I recently had a look at the costs of "upgrading" to Office 2010. shocking. didnt seem to be any multi-user packs avalable like there used to, and no upgrade route even from 2007. £430 each. tried the SME volume licensing, got halfway through the ridiculously complicated licensing web site proceedure only to realise that the site is IE-only (yeah thanks for wasting my time there M$). started again, finally got a price after dicking around with the dreadful interface for 20mins. £430 each. set the quantity to 25 licenses. £430 each. just out of interest set the quantity to 101 licenses. £430 each. so apparently theres no volume discount for buying even 100 licenses (just download 1 installer and the license keys) vs buying 100 retail boxed versions. M$ really take the pi$$.

[dedalos]

As many parties see it, by skipping the inevitable next upgrade fees and cost.

Don't forget, the cost of training personnel and the cost of upgrading every computer to OO after wiping out MO.  Also, cost to a public company means nothing if there is a budget.  These are the same guys that would ask me if I want to go to London on a business trip since I have not been there in over 6 months lol.  Not be cause I was needed there.