Slashdot Mirror
OpenOffice Gets a Toe-Hold in The Netherlands
ChristW writes "Several sources in The Netherlands report that the city of Groningen will invest 160.000 euros yearly to switch its 3650 computers to OpenOffice. They are saving 330.000 euros per year by making this switch. The other 170.000 euros will be saved up to use for new Microsoft Office licences if it becomes necessary to renew them. The city plans to renew software every 5 years, as opposed to Microsoft, who 'forces' an upgrade cycle of 3 years. Switching from Windows to Linux is not seen as an option at this point in time, so those licenses will be renewed."
Open office might actually be the first really usable alternative to the whole windows schema in the cooperate world, right now Thunderbird, Linux, and Firefox (along with big open source themed software) aren't quite compatible with the features that are used all to often in the cooperate world where plugins are developed only for MS products,
With open office there aren't to many critical plugins that are required for every day use in the office (atleast not where I am from) so it might be the first Open Source product do to its ability to save documents and open them in the MS formats that really transitions well
plus being free and until recently without even a whisper of a virus an excellent alternative to the all powerful (and always needed it seems) MS office suite. Now if the gimp could match photoshop in ease of use we might be there
Did someone say cake?
Maybe I missed it, but I don't see how Microsoft can "force" someone to upgrade after three years. Just because they come out with a new version doesn't mean you have to run out and buy it. If you only want to buy every five years, just buy every five years and ignore the release cycle. Is there something I'm missing?
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
Actually Microsoft has the worst help system I've had to deal with, and it seems to be getting worse rather than better. I don't know what sort of users they are targeting, but the usability was better in Office 97 than 2000, and Office XP just totally sucks. I feel I'm wasting time, since I can google answers that are actually relevant.