[vox] Fwd: Re: Reasons you might not want to use OpenOffice

[Bill Kendrick]

Matthew posted from a non-subscribed address, so fwd'ing it to the
list on his behalf...

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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 10:38:55 -0700
From: Matthew Van Gundy
Subject: Re: [vox] Reasons you might not want to use OpenOffice
To: vox at lists.lugod.org

On 10/25/10 9:17 AM, Brian Lavender wrote:
>We know the virtues of liberated software and once we figure it out how
>to use it, we are only constrained by our knowlege, but should we truly
>say, "It's free." when users have to make a time investment to use it
>and at times be constrained by features they have in MS Office but not
>in OpenOffice?

<snip>

>http://www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/US/details/faaf9eb8-77c6-4bed-bc08-c069a7bfbb04

I find it interesting that many of their criticisms against OpenOffice 
also apply to Microsoft Office --- e.g. difficulty of obtaining low-cost 
support, cost of internal IT support, unfamiliarity of people not 
accustomed to the product, etc.  All tools have their strengths and 
weaknesses --- both Microsoft Office and OpenOffice have their own to be 
sure.  Each user has different needs and, possibly, different factors 
that contribute to the Total Cost of Ownership of any software.  Like 
many things in life, trade-offs must be made.

I stopped using OpenOffice a long time ago in favor of LaTeX and I 
quietly smile every time I go to a presentation and someone is having 
trouble with the compatibility of PowerPoint between machines.  It has 
been a good trade-off for me.  However, I have yet to recommend LaTeX as 
a substitute to anyone who is not in Computer Science.  It requires more 
understanding about its principles of operation than the average word 
processor user can be expected to bring to the table.  So, over the 
years, I've recommended each of OpenOffice, Microsoft Office, and iWork 
to different users depending on their needs.

Use the right tool for the job.

Cheers,
Matt


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-- 
-bill!
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