City Of Austin Migrating To OpenOffice.org

An anonymous reader writes "NewsForge.com has a story up this morning about the City of Austin and the results of their pilot program on OpenOffice.org. The bottom line is this: they have found that more than 80% of the city's 5K desktops can use OO.o instead of MS Office. Let the migrations begin!"

Comments

They are switching to something cheaper?

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you *sure* this is a local government agency?

Re:80%?

[danheskett]

If only there was some type of document, or article, that laid out the facts of the case.. it'd make things so clear and straightforward. I mean, gosh, wouldn't be nice if a person interviewed the relevant people and put the results in some type of hyperlinked document attached to this story?

Re:80%?

[metallicagoaltender]

Someone should ask them, and perhaps address their problems.

Someone should read the article, where they would find the following:

He also pointed out that not everyone can be converted just yet because of a single application (the City Council's Agenda Management System) requires MS Office to run.

The FOLLOWUP question is...

[johnthorensen]

How many of these desktops could subsequently be switched to Linux?

In my experience, most city employees really only need a good Solitare implementation to accomplish their day-to-day work. Given the number of quality Solitare packages for Linux, it would probably be no issue to get everyone moved over. :)

Seriously though...for many, the hassle of setting up MS Office under WINE is a major stumbling block to moving to a Linux desktop. With the removal of MS Office from the equation, I would think that Austin may want to give Ximian Desktop or something of the sort a closer look.

-JT

Re:The FOLLOWUP question is...

[Hard_Code]

On Linux solitaire is replaced by many configuration utilities that essentially serve the same purpose :p

Re:Don't bother RTFA, this arcitle is FUD, here's

[Anonymous Coward]

"Until I see a credible news source (I mean like USA Today, CNN [...]"

Hahahahahahaha. Thanks, I needed that.

Re:Don't bother RTFA, this arcitle is FUD, here's

[hanssprudel]

I won't believe this. This story is FUD. FUD FUD FUD. FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD.

Calm down now, Steve. You know that the heart doctor told you about getting so worked up.

Yes, even about developers...

Re:Don't bother RTFA, this arcitle is FUD, here's

[STrinity]

You know the meaning of FUD, right? Just because something is wrong OR unverified, doesn't make it FUD.

Well obviously it's anti-Microsoft FUD, trying to convince people that not every business computer runs Office. Silly, I know, but there are probably some managers out there feeling uncertainty and doubt about the hegemony of Microsoft, and wondering why they don't switch.

Re:fp

[Rhubarb Crumble]

barenakedCaniac (725225)
barenakedCaniac
nick_harris@bridge-point.com
(email not shown publicly)
Karma: Bad

Hi Nick!

Re:Okay...Will this legitimize OO for other orgs?

[notque]

I work for a small company (actually owned by my father) and I've been pushing for migration for some time. Our problem is that we have several in-house Access databases that would be non-trivial to switch to something else. But this kind of story, at the very least, gives ammo to guys like me to convince the boss to switch.

Isn't, "My father will fire you.." all the ammo you need?

*dreams of such a senario, including a chocolate wonderland.*

Texas or Minnesota?

[handy_vandal]

The subject line ought to read:

"City Of Austin (Texas) Migrating To OpenOffice.org."

Otherwise there may be confusion with Austin, Minnesota ... home of Hormel Foods, maker of Spam.

-kgj

Re:Not the same

[The Almighty Dave]

They are going to call you, just like they do now.

Texas or France?

[bstadil]

I will keep this in mind as I was about to file a story about Mandrake and OpenOffice being evaluated by the Major of Paris.

New slogan for OOo:

[LittleBigLui]

Oh Behave! OOo Powers Austin!