StarOffice 8 May Be MS Office Killer

UltimaGuy wrote to mention an eWeek article that seemed topical, given the recent discussions about the OpenDocument format. They're running a piece discussing StarOffice 8's killer position as an alternative to Office. From the article: "However, whether StarOffice 8 can succeed as a wholesale or partial replacement for Microsoft Office will depend on the organization thinking about making the switch. Several improvements in StarOffice 8 are aimed directly at improving compatibility with Microsoft Office-formatted documents, but converting complex documents between the two suites' formats will in some cases require tweaking to preserve document appearance. In addition, while StarOffice 8 can be extended through macros and scripting, much like Microsoft Office can, these extensions won't migrate to Microsoft Office without being rewritten. However, StarOffice ships with a Macro Migration wizard that will aid in the migration of Microsoft Visual Basic macros to the StarOffice Basic macro language. There's also a Document Analysis wizard that helps determine where trouble spots might lie in the transition to a StarOffice format."

Comments

Kill!

[Nuffsaid]

Don't want to sound like a troll, but I'm a bit tired of this American fixation on killing things (and persons!). In my (probably outdated) English vocabulary "to kill" and "to prevail" have different meaning. It seems that in too many minds you can't be satisfied about your achievements if you don't destroy any competition. You are Number One or you are nothing. "Loser" is an insult, "killer" is a compliment. In my own language "loser" is not a compliment, too, but it doesn't imply a total despise for the person, just a recognition of a particular failing that at most should move to compassion, not to further offense. Offending the weak is coward, in my opinion, not strong.

Moreover, accepting nothing less than total obliteration of any competition is childish and leads to psychological inability to manage the many situations in real life when this turns out to be impossible.

Sorry for the OffTopic, but this kind of mindset is too frequent and springs out in a lot of disparate places.