[DC LoCo] Microsoft OpenOffice FUD YouTube video

[Kevin Cole]

I wish ads like this allowed the viewer to (a) pay attention to what's being
said rather than dazzle with all the varieties of ways one can arrange words
and animate them, and (b) not make me stop the video when I want to know WHO
is making the arguments.

As someone who has very little need for fancy word processing, and has not
had a problem with spreadsheets, I can't comment much on the practical /
pragmatic pros and cons of Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org.  However,
virus-free for 17 years goes a VERY long way with me.  And, "compatible
with" shouldn't be the gold standard.  Particularly if the product with
which one is seeking compatibility has its own flaws. Here at Gallaudet, a
portion of the campus moved to a newer version of MS Office against the
recommendations of the IT department (and most newspapers, other campuses,
etc.). Our IT department is pretty much a Microsoft shop and doesn't have
any particular love of Linux.  They were recommending people hold off on the
latest, and they control a lot of computers on campus.  Unfortunately,
students and others who did upgrade were circulating documents that over
half the campus couldn't read.  Microsoft can't stay compatible with itself.

Is FOSS flawed? Sure. So is non-FOSS. And in both cases, you probably get
better support from the community of users than anyone else. But in addition
to the cost of time maintaining and fixing problems, Microsoft adds in the
cost of license per machine.  The claim that somehow paying for the product
removes the cost of maintenance seems specious. The corporate model they
still use is it's better to hide flaws / bugs / exploits from the users
until someone internally can fix them.

-- 
Ubuntu Linux DC LoCo
Washington, DC
http://dc.ubuntu-us.org/
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