OpenOffice.Org in a Corporate Environment?

robpoe asks: "I've been working on a rollout plan for OpenOffice.org 2.0 for a medium sized network. This network runs a number of different MS Office versions, and we absolutely must retain the Microsoft Office 97/2000/2002 file formats (for interoperability with the public and other entities). Getting our versions of Office to 2003 is $65k+, so we're looking closely at OOo. The problem is, since OOo keeps track of changes per user, and we have users that move around (and no, Roaming Profiles are not an option for us), and you cannot expect a user to change those preferences on every computer they log in to. Let's hear some great deployment plans for keeping the default file type, and even general rollout plans. How are you doing it?" "It seems that nobody has done this (or documented it) that I've found. Let's see if we can get a good thing going by documenting a good, easy to manage rollout plan. Oh, and the default for saving files has to remain in Office 97/2k/xp format.

What are you using to deploy OOo automatically on your network. Assume that we have capability of login script (batch files / registry changes), but no SMS/ZenWorks/etc.

Comments

Why not?

[ZiakII]

Why not just keep Office 2000/XP?

OO.org does not have perfect file compatibility

[vijayiyer]

While this doesn't address your question, you mention the necessity of using MS office files. Be absolutely sure you are aware of the limitations of importing/exporting MS office documents. Contrary to what a lot of slashdotters imply, the document compatibility is only so-so when working with complex Word and Powerpoint files, which forced me back away from OO.org. Don't get me wrong - I don't like MS Office myself. But when forced to work with MS Office files, it's incredibly difficult to use any other tool.

TermServer/Citrix/XWindows/whatever

[Gothmolly]

Since you're going to make a fairly large paradigm shift anyway, why not go all the way and centrally host it? Running it over your favorite remote protocol might work fine, it wont bloat or slow down the clients, you can insta-upgrade people to new versions, and the roaming profile requirement evaporates.
If people save to some network share, and their PCs can access that, then there's no problem. Map some printers back to local clients (depends on how you do the remote session, might be LPD, share, or LPT redirect), and people might not ever know they're NOT on the local machine.

Be careful about compatibility

[mferrare]

I used to run my own consultancy and I used OpenOffice (well StarOffice back then) as my office suite. I found it more useful to send documents around in PDF format instead of sending word documents to my clients. Most of my clients could read PDF back then (this was '99/2000) - even more should be able to now.

Be careful about compatibility. The MS Office compatibility in OpenOffice is not all it's cracked up to be - even things like bullets and headings change fonts and spacings during conversions. IMHO it's better for you to work in native formats and send PDF files around.

Roaming Profiles aren't a good solution...

[Anonymous Coward]

They only solve this problem for EVERY app on your network.

You're basically asking for the features of Roaming Profiles without having to actually implement them.

Unfair Moderation.

[Doc Squidly]

Why not just keep Office 2000/XP?

This is a valid question that shouldn't have been modded as flamebait. Sure, its an unpopular question considering the /. crowd but, still valid.

The first option that is usually overlooked in IT is, "Do Nothing". If any software product is meeting a businesses needs then why replace it without a good enough reason. Will the benefits of switching form product A to product C outweigh the cost.

I love new stuff as much as the next guy but, if a product works, even one made by M$, then asking if your company should continue to use it is a question any IT Pro should ask.

There plenty of good reasons to switch to OOo but, don't do it just because it's not a M$ product.

[Gets off soap box]

Have you checked with your Finance department?

[winkydink]

Especially the really heavy users of Excel? The ones who build "models"? Don't tell them, but all that "macro" stuff they build? It's essentially a furball of VB. Furball? Yes, because it's been written by somebody who doesn't know how to program. They just keep whacking at it until it works.

And guess what? It doesn't work in OpenOffice.

A real earth-shaking idea

[adolf]

Here's a thought:

Pay someone else to do it. You're saving $65k, right? Give a (small) portion of that cash to someone familiar with OOo, and have them code the changes that you're after.

Just because it's free software doesn't mean that it's afraid of money. Go ahead and buy the features you need.

Re:Store the OpenOffice config file on network dri

[alc6379]

Just run the entire thing off of a thumb drive or live distribution that they can use anywhere they go that mounts your netdrive ;)

Are you nuts? Do you really think you're going to get a whole organization to run in that fashion? Do you think end users are going to keep up with thumb drives and live CDs?

I'm not going to belittle you, but that has to be the least feasible idea that I've ever run across as a suggestion for something like this. If the poster really wanted to do it properly, they'd implement roaming profiles, or at the very least, a mounted network share that synchronized at logout. If that was configured correctly, the operation of such a setup would be transparent to any program that accesses files from those directories.

Re:neither does MS Office

[hey!]

No, the parent post is right. I've had some very bad experiences with inconsistent Word rendering of long complex documents too. You can close a document and immediately reopen it on the same machine and it would be messed up.

The only reliable and feasible answer I've found is to stick to simple layout when I'm using word processing program. If you want to get fancy, you should use a page layout program.