Outlook and Linux

[Eric S. Johansson]

Lee Braiden wrote:
> That's a result of shortsighted use of products that lock you in to one 
> vendor; something that OpenOffice 2 is an ideal solution to.  And it may 
> actually suit your import needs, if you try it.  MS Office compatibility has 
> been greatly improved from what I hear, including Excel support.  Either way, 
> it's your company's fault that it used a closed format, not OOo's for having 
> to guess at what's in the closed format.

interesting philosophy.  So if you have customers that send you 
information that is essential to you making money and it's in a 
proprietary format, what should you do?  The easiest solution for many 
organizations is just to buy the proprietary application.  Yes, this 
creates network lock in problems for any competitor but it still lets 
you meet payroll.

solution?  It's not going to be telling someone "you are ruining my work 
processes by using a proprietary format".  That's a short path to career 
disaster.  unfortunately, the only solution is going to be for open 
office to be bug for bug compatible with Excel and Word.  Only then will 
people transition because the system behaves as they expect.

now I will advocate trying again with 2.0 but I must go carefully with 
my customer.

---eric