The future of Ubuntu Linux.... Will it make Micro$oft go bankrupt?

[Karl Auer]

On Mon, 2009-05-11 at 03:23 -0400, anthony baldwin wrote:
> In fact, I run a very successfull translation agency from my home 
> office,and we're 100% FOSS, and use OpenOffice.
> We handle M$Orifice files every day, without issue.

However, there ARE issues. Anyone embarking on a changeover, or who has
relationships that depend on the exchange of word processing documents
would be well advised to carefully check that there is sufficient
interoperability for what they want to do.

My own office has both Ubuntu+OOO and Windows+Office, and we find that
while the vast majority of short documents exchange flawlessly, longer
documents and documents using more advanced features sometimes don't
exchange properly. The differences range from very slight to very major.
Numbering is particularly sensitive (so watch out if you work with
contracts and other legal documents). Pagination is also a common
victim, mostly because font metrics can be subtly different. We have
standardised on a set of fonts that work well for us. Frames and images
are also a bugbear, alignment is often out.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)

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