[DC LoCo] Microsoft OpenOffice FUD YouTube video

[Thomas Doggette]

Obviously, the tone of that is almost absurdly FUD-y, but the thing is,
they're right.

OpenOffice is bad software. It's slow, buggy, incompatible with Office in
important ways (which matters if you want to interact with anyone outside of
the small OSS community), and its interface is an imitation of what Office
used to look like back when it had an ugly and complex toolbar-based UI.

Office 2010 is a very nice product for an enterprise environment. Microsoft
has awful business practices, they do serious harm to standards, and this
video is a hamfisted attempt to scare people away from considering
alternatives. On the other hand, I couldn't in good conscience recommend
OO.o over Office 2010 to anyone who actually has an IT budget.

Open source software needs to be better than the alternative if it's to gain
traction. Being gratis and ethically superior isn't enough to compete
against a polished, well-supported closed competitor.

On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 1:53 PM, Phil Shapiro <pshapiro at his.com> wrote:

>   You might have heard. An official Microsoft video posted to the MS
> Office channel of YouTube.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzdykNa2IBU
>
>  Refuted in the book review I co-wrote last month.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/23gcgg8
>
> Book review - Learn OpenOffice.org Spreadsheet Macros
>
>     Anyone know what presentation app they used to create this? Ripe for
> parodies -- Use OpenOffice, lose your job, your marriage, your house,
> your friends, etc. (ominous music soundtrack)
>
>     First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you...
>
>           Phil
>
>
>
> --
> Phil Shapiro  pshapiro at his.com
> http://www.his.com/pshapiro/briefbio.html
> http://www.twitter.com/philshapiro
> http://www.his.com/pshapiro/stories.menu.html
>
> "Wisdom begins with wonder." - Socrates
> "Learning happens thru gentleness."
>
>
>
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