[ubuntu-uk] MS vs. OO

[Alan Pope]

On 15 September 2010 09:10, Mark Harrison <Mark at ascentium.co.uk> wrote:
> 1: I've not used MS Office for about 5 years now, however the one time I
> needed to was in 2007 for a really complex mailmerge, which is one area
> where MSO is still better than OOo :-(
>

I once made the mistake of saying on a LUG mailing list "I have to use
Microsoft office at work" at which point it was pointed out that I
didn't have to work for that company by one of the members of the
list. This is of course true, and for some people it is indeed
possible and desirable to make a career choice based only on whether
they get to use free software all day or not. An example of such a
person would be Bradley Kuhn. Personally that's not a choice I'm going
to make because I'm a pragmatist, and the software I use on a daily
basis is only part of the decision making process.

Unfortunately OpenOffice.org is incompatible with the systems we use
at work every day. This frustrates me, but that frustration is
tempered with the knowledge that we have hundreds of quite chunky
boxes powering the Enterprise that are all running Linux :D

> There are lots of areas where OOo is genuinely better, in terms of
> functionality, as well as being free (in the cash sense). Actually, it's not
> quite Free in the OpenSource sense, if you read the Sun licence carefully
> :-)
>

Indeed. The Linux Kernel isn't/wasn't properly free software until
very recently.

http://webmink.com/2010/08/30/gnulinux-finally-its-free-software/

> This over-the-top, "why the f**** would you" stuff is actually DRIVING
> PEOPLE AWAY FROM LINUX.
>

+1

> If I ran for Microsoft's Dirty Tricks Division, then I'd pay people to join
> LUG lists and post nasty comments about MS to make people feel that the
> Linux community were nutters :-)
>

I suspect they do this already! :D

Cheers,
Al.