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OpenOffice 1.1 RC 1 Released
Heartz writes "OpenOffice has released OpenOffice 1.1 RC 1. Get details here. Neat features include built in PDF and Flash export, better MS Office document filters and more!"
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Openoffice has really matured lately. With at least two free (not as in beer) Exchange server substitutes, I reckon OpenOffice is ready for... the office.
What I would like to read is a review of OpenOffice from some non-techie end user from a company that has switched to OO. Did the migration work seemlessly? Did the $ saved in software license measure up to the manhours the IT department had to use for support? Basically, a cost-benefit analysis, because a positive analysis like that is what it takes for the suits to recognize OO.
It seriously needs to be packaged as an MSI installer, preferably with a Transform creator so that the install can be customised as much as possible. To create a custom MS Office install for the entire enterprise takes 15 minutes, OpenOffice can take days to repackage...
Now convince your 60 year old father who runs a home office that he should do this to 3,000+ of his archived documents from projects dating back to the wordperfect 5.1 days, just so you can uninstall a piece of software he already owns, and you'll have an argument.
The only reason he'll even use openoffice at all is if he gets a file in email that corel won't open.
The technical ability do do something does not mean that your wetware will be compatible, especially if your method is tedious and painful. You learn that stuff after college.
This company saves loads by adopting open source, so did my previous company. Sure we had to spend a little time and effort to investigate but we, the business were the ones who profited from it, and we profited over our rivals.
What exactly do you expect to happen, perhaps something like this:
Business Guy: I'd love to if you just has [feature] which MS has and makes my life a lot easier.
OSS Community: oh yes, no problem, we just spent the last 6 months working in our free time to make this software, let me just take a few days off work to do that for you.
You are missing the entire point of OSS. If enough people wanted that feature then it would already be there. If just that company wants that feature then they can hire a coder to add it. They don't have some mystical right to demand features/upgrades just beacuse the software is open. What if they want a feature that ms office doesnt have?
We're getting on its case because it's so good. It's ALMOST THERE as an MS Office killer. We all want to be able to deploy it in place of MS Office.
If your attitude is "It's free so it's OK for it to suck" then do you not think there's any reason to make open source software that's as good or better than commercial stuff?
It's fine that it's good enough for small companies and schools. But it'll be even better when, one day, it's good enough to displace MS Office in really large enterprises! It won't get there if everyone is just saying "It's good enough for gramma to write letters, let's stop working on it."