Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: caldera on September 26, 2010, 11:32:10 PM
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Anybody familiar with it? I want to make a spreadsheet but don't want to buy Excel.
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Works fine. You can make, save, open and share the same files as Microsoft Office.
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It works well. It's almost identical in every facet, i.e. statistical functions, spreadsheet being user friendly. Programming cells is the same. The graphs are a little bit different but are easily figured out. Open office also has a very good online help data base.
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Wow that was fast. :O Thanks.
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It works well. It's almost identical in every facet, i.e. statistical functions, spreadsheet being user friendly. Programming cells is the same. The graphs are a little bit different but are easily figured out. Open office also has a very good online help data base.
Not only that but if you act now it can be yours for the low, low price of free. :D
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Grin,
I use it for writing in the pro market. Another feature is that it has a Linux version that operates the same (mostly) and does not need a windows OS to run.
Regards,
Kevin
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What's great about it is it is compatible with MS Office documents. You can open them, and they can open yours! :aok
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I use open office all the time. I run thunderbird for my mail.
I use a PDF plugin to open and edit PDFs too.
It works excellently.
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I used to use openoffice, until the USAF purchased a home use program license from Microsoft. Now I get to buy one copy of office ultimate (or whatever the business version happens to be called now) for $20 whenever the version changes.
If I didn't have that option, you bet I'd be using openoffice.
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I had problem with it screwing up Java for everything else that runs on Java. Before I bothered to figure out why that happened I went back to school and just bought a student copy of MS Office. So they may have fixed it by now. But it was within the last two years that I had that problem.
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OO is great, surprised Microsoft hasn't successfully shut em down.
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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.
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I would think they would take issue over a free product that is a compatible alternative to their expensive product.
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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.
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There does seem to be some compatibility issues as far as graphs go. If I save my oo spreadsheet to a .xls and try to open it with excel on a different machine, my plots may get messed up. The spreadsheets are completely comvertible though.
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Text To Columns is a little funky too. Otherwise no problems.
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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>
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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.
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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.
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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.
:pray
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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. :aok
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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. :aok
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
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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.
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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
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.
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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 :lol
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M$ fanboi... First time ever...
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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 :lol
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?
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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.
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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 :lol 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 :rofl
BTW, do you do web development by any chance?
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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, :rofl 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?
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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 :lol 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 :rofl
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.
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Shuff, really, :rofl 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?
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I'm a little hesitant to use OpenOffice. I believe the JAVA may be prone to attacks.
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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 ;)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Wow, what a ruckus! (http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o460/caldera_08/smilies/fighting0040.gif)
I might never ask a question again. (http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o460/caldera_08/smilies/scared0016.gif)
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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..
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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$$. :rolleyes:
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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.
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Anybody familiar with it? I want to make a spreadsheet but don't want to buy Excel.
yes , it's safe and I use it all the time.
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OO works fine for me.