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

[sdavmor]

Ashley Benton wrote:
> 
> 
> On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 9:26 AM, Derek Broughton
> <derek at pointerstop.ca <mailto:derek at pointerstop.ca>> wrote:
> 
> Pete Holsberg wrote:
> 
>> Ashley Benton wrote:
>>> I agree with you my sons from 9 to 13 refuse to use Ubuntu
>>> because they are not able to play their games or the games are
>>> too slow. Another problem with my older came from the
>>> difference of format. He had a problem with his homework last
>>> year. He was able to use Ubuntu to do them but the school
>>> couldn't read them!
>> 
>> If they were using Openoffice, they could have saved their
> homework in
>> Microsoft-compatible form.
> 
> or even just emailed it in MS-compatible form, while _saving_ in
> .odt -- derek
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks I will try as yesterday my son try a Ubuntu presentation
> saved in ppt and when watched on Windows the pictures had
> disappeared and only the text remained, I'll try it your way and
> see how that works. I am sure that what is happening is due more to
> not knowing how to than to open office and any advices are welcome
> as I'd like to have my sons use Ubuntu more often but don't want
> them to have trouble at school for it neither.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Meg

Sorry to hear this. My two sons do all their homework assignments on
Open Office, except for the computer-lab stuff that they are required
to do at school on Windows. They save their files as Word, Excel and
Powerpoint compatible and have never had anything "blow up" when
presenting in class or emailing to their teachers. They do always test
them on my wife's Windows desktop first, but everything done and saved
in OO has always worked straight out of the box.

I also use OO to work on docs for my customers, most of whom use MS
Office / Outlook. I get their Word/Excel/PPT files and have never had
any problems working on them. And have never had any problems with
anything I've sent back to them. In fact the only problem I have had
is with an Excel spreadsheet used by an NFL week-to-week pool I've
been in for the last few years. I keep meaning to send it on to the OO
development team, so they can "fix" whatever it's issue is.

Do you have OO setup to save file in the various MS compatible format
automatically? I know it's heresy but that might be a good place to
start if your kids really only produce output that will go to Windows
users.

FWIW, Sun has a downloadable Office plugin that allows it to open the 
native OO .odf files.

<http://www.sun.com/software/star/odf_plugin/index.jsp>
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