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OpenOffice.org Tries to Woo Dell
Rob writes "OpenOffice.org project members have written to Dell (pdf), hoping to persuade the company to adopt OpenOffice in response to customer demand. John McCreesh, OpenOffice.org marketing project lead, writes 'Let's have a conversation about how we could build an OpenOffice.org supplied by Dell product to give your customers what they are asking for.' Demand for open source products on Dell's IdeaStorm web site prompted the letter. A somewhat obvious question is raised: why isn't OpenOffice already available by default on new PC's and Workstations?"
It isn't on there by default, because that would mean people might actually use it...and we can't have people just running around using free software, can we?
In a world of acronyms, the words are the real victims.
OOo is free, and therefore Dell gets no cut.
By the way, I've sent Dell a letter about a little time management application I've been working on for a few years. I'm expecting a reply!!!
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Because then customers would have less of an incentive to purchase MS Office. This gives MS a huge incentive to pressure Dell, et al, to not offer alternatives on a windows machine.
Seems fairly obvious to me.
I thought it said:
"OpenOffice.org Tries to Doo Well"
Sigs are for Terrorists.
why isn't OpenOffice already available by default on new PC's and Workstations?"
Because your average home user buying an off the shelf PC (regardless of who it's from) has no idea what Open Office is. Even if you provided it as an option, given the choice between a (seemingly) free version of some MS product and Open Office, the average customer would take Open Office. Throw in the bit about most customers expecting to get support from the PC manufacturer for everything that's on there, and you have to talk about training your tech support folks on how to handle Open Office support calls.
Tech savy users and corporate customers are likely to blow the default image away and replace it with something tweaked to their choosing, so you wouldn't be saving them a tremendous amount of time by having it installed anyway.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
MS Office isn't installed on a new PC by default either. Even at an OEM type discount, it isn't free.
/. community doesn't keep the lights on.
OpenOffice is freely available to anyone with an internet connection, and Dell simply doesn't see the business case for distributing and supporting it. Even if they tried to distribute with a support disclaimer there would still be a lot of calls to support about it. Also, Dell would have to distribute CDs with the source code since OpenOffice is GPL'd, etc, etc. None of it is a show-stopper, but why go through all the hassle with no reward? Distributing free software that they don't want to support (or don't think they can sell support on) doesn't make sense for Dell.
Yeah, it would be nice, but warm feelings and the respect of the
Yet they offer the incompatible (and amusingly named) Microsoft Works package. If they can offer Microsoft Works by default, why can't they offer OpenOffice as an option?
I believe that is the point the author is trying to make.
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The first thing I did when I got my dell laptop was flash the HD and reinstall an OEM copy of windows.
Your Dell laptop came with a solid state hard drive?
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It's not about customer value -- anyone asking for OpenOffice already knows about it and can easily install it. Dell's strategy is to make the cheapest PC's around to bring in customers, then make it as easy as possible to spend more than that. They are not the Wal-Mart of computing. A 30 day Office trial pays Dell. Even so, they want you to buy Office -- they get more money that way. OO.o has no such financial arrangement, and it would be tricky for Dell to attempt to charge customers for it.
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Or maybe it's because Dell can't make any money off OO?
First they could just include the source on the hard drive. Or even better, they could just put up an FTP site where the source is available. It wouldn't even have to be high traffic. I seriously doubt more than 1% of people who buy Dell computers are going to want to download the source for OpenOffice. Nowhere in the GPL does it say you have to include the source with the product, just that you have to make it available. You can even make someone send you an email/snailmail, and charge them for a CD and shipping.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
It's obvious -- Dell makes more money *selling* MS Office then *giving* away OpenOffice.
Even when the customer doesn't buy MS Office up front, you can be sure that MS pays Dell for every "60-day trial" version which comes installed on most PCs nowadays. Even if MS didn't unfairly retaliate, giving away OO would take away from subscribers buying or upgrading to paid MS Office so Dell would inevitably get less of a commission back from MS.
On the other hand adding a preloaded OO is unlikely to shift share to Dell so not much upside -- particularly, since the relatively small minority of users who consider this as a factor could easily download it themselves.
Plus supporting OO would add support costs.
So, while I would love personally to see more OO, I don't see the business case from Dell's perspective
oh wait, I forgot the guys in charge dont like Apple either.
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A somewhat obvious question is raised: why isn't OpenOffice already available by default on new PC's and Workstations?
Obvious? What's obvious is that Dell can make a profit from MS Office. Frankly, if I were a business I would look to the profit aspect first.
Also consider tech support. I would think that Dell is going to get more support from MS than the OO people when it comes down to wide spread issues involving their product. Tech support is doubtlessly a large chunk of Dell's overhead. The better support from their software vendors the less that overhead will be. That's a big plus and anyone who's taken business-101 type classes can tell you this.
Not to mention that free software still has a stigma about it. This isn't likely to go away anytime soon.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
On top of that, it's still not 100% compatible with MS Office... I frequently have to slightly adjust things converting between OO's .odf and Office's .doc and have had some features of Excel spreadsheets not work in OO. That alone is going to make it unacceptable for use on projects for school or work which are then going to probably be used in MS Office.
Stop Using the Proprietary MS Formats - The vast majority of people complaining about OOo complain that it doesn't open MS Documents 100% Accurately. If you would simply start to use the default file format - ODF you won't have this problem.
At a local school we decided to have the teachers use OpenOffice.org, or if they wanted Microsoft Office - to have the teachers find the funding for it themselves. Most chose OpenOffice.org and the #1 complaint was that it did not open Word Documents 100% accurately - mostly drawings wouldn't show up correctly. Once everyone transitioned to use the ODF format - all complaints stopped, and once they started using OOo most found it better than MS Office - Especially once they learned how to utilize styles.
That will go over with Dell like a pregnant woman doing a pole vault... No percentage (that they would get with any other commercial office product) means no profit...
It would have made since for PC builders to supply OO on new computers last year. It would have given the user added value for free. It's a great suite of tools. Even though I have Office at work, there's I still use OO for certain applications.
.docx by default in 2007. This creates a huge compatibility void until someone creates an open source DTD for OO to open and render .docx files. No matter how good OO gets, Office is THE standard. If it can't keep up with Office compatibility (and I'm sure it eventually will catch up), it's about as useful as WordPerfect (i.e., it's fine as long as you don't have to use anybody elses files).
The problem with OO right now is that, even though OO is a great substitute and can use Office files...it CANT use Office 2007 files. People are going to be saving files with
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
You hit some often-ignored but obvious points there, but I'm afraid it's a near-miss. The #1 reason why Dell will not supply OpenOffice isn't the cost of shipping media, nor the support nightmare that would inevitably ensue. The #1 reason is because OpenOffice would compete with MS Office.
If the average joe's computer came with a free word processor and spreadsheet, they no longer need to spend $250 and up on MS Office. Not only would Dell lose money from those lost software sales (which are far more profitable than the PC sales), but they would be hurting their #1 partner: Microsoft.
If people want to use OO.o, they can get it freely on the net without Dell getting involved. The "large number of customers" who want this are just a small fraction of the residential crowd, which itself accounts for maybe 10% of Dell's business. Their big fish is the corporate sector, where one sales pitch can net thousands of system orders. If one of those big guys wants OO.o, they will have a sysadmin to load it into the Ghost image, or they can pay Dell's solution integrators lots of money to do it for them. Either way, the home user doesn't get squat.
On a more general tune, I get irritated whenever some free software project whines about big-business partnerships. Those big partnerships exist because there's big money going back and forth. You have to pay to play, that's how it works in corporate america. The free software loudmouths are like a poor family with a retarded son, bitching because Mensa won't let them join. The reality is we don't need Dell, HP and friends to bundle Linux, OpenOffice, or any other free software, it's a losing battle. If/when free software truly exceeds Microsoft in functionality, ease of use and installation, and enterprise support, that's when the big guys will COME to us. We're not there yet.
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Even if they tried to distribute with a support disclaimer there would still be a lot of calls to support about it. Also, Dell would have to distribute CDs with the source code since OpenOffice is GPL'd, etc, etc.
1: So Dell gets a support call about Open Office. They handle it the same way they handle most technical questions about MS Office: go to the software vendor. Problem solved. No additional work required.
2: Why would Dell need to distribute CD's with source on them? Nowhere does the GPL even mention that you have to do this. All they have to do is include a piece of paper in each box that says "Want the Open Office source? Email: xxx@dell.com", or set up an FTP site, or make someone mail in a source request form, etc, etc. Problem solved.
Anthony Papillion
Advanced Data Concepts, Inc.
"Quality Custom Software and IT Services"
My theory is that Dell gets a lower OEM price on windows because they bundle MSW with their PCs (and what is MS works really besides a promotion to buy office?). It could be that any money they save by bundling Open Office may be lost because they stopped bundling MSW with Windows.
Stop Using the Proprietary MS Formats - The vast majority of people complaining about OOo complain that it doesn't open MS Documents 100% Accurately. If you would simply start to use the default file format - ODF you won't have this problem.
Maybe our places of employment use MS formats. Maybe our customers use MS formats. Most people do. If your customers demand you send them MS office files, what are you going to do?
I often work from home. Without MS software on my home machine, I would not be able to do that. You work in a school, and persuaded them to change their IT policy and adopt an open alternative. That's great.I work for a multinational company employing tens of thousands of people. They are not going to change their IT policy just to suit little old me.
"I realise this is not a very popular opinion but it's the truth, and there for needs to be said" -Bill Hicks
Maybe because Microsoft Office is a superior product. They don't offer beta versions of MS Office either. If customers want to use OpenOffice they can download. In most cases, it's got critical deficiencies that will confuse most customers. I've tried the ol' OpenOffice switcheroo on non-open-source-enthusiasts before. They were basically confused and frustrated with OpenOffice and why it didn't do the same things.
Microsoft Office is a lot more intelligent than people give it credit for.
The company I work for always adds OpenOffice to every new PC sold by default, because getting OEM Office drives the price up by almost $200 (and our price is already higher than Office Depot, Office Max, Best Buy and Walmart on comparable PCs of the main brands). I find, however, that people who are comfortable using MS Office don't like OpenOffice, just like people who are comfortable with Corel WordPerfect typically don't like MS Word. You like the program you are most familiar with, even if other programs do the same task better. Nobody likes having to learn to do the same thing in a different manner. I still tie my shoes the same way I taught myself to as a child, even though the normal way to tie one's shoes tends to keep them tied longer than my method.
With that in mind I find it highly amusing that MS Office 2007 requires a substantial learning curve before most users can become efficient with it. Nice job yet again, Microsoft. Justify the massive pricetag of your newest product that is nothing more than a minor upgrade with a facelift by including an interface overhaul.
I have customers that are still using MS Office 97, purchased almost ten years ago. Why? Because for them, it still works just fine.
Not really. They could advertise that even their lowest-end, cheapest systems came with a full, Office-compatable application suite. Of course, they could then extoll the advantages of MS Office over OOo on the page where you pick it, which might actually increase sales of Office, but in the end, the user would still be getting a better deal and Dell would still be getting, at the very least, further reinforcement of their reputation (deserved or not) for providing good systems at low prices.
I'm actually kind of here to moderate, but, what about the reward of more customers? You know, I bet a lot of people aren't particularly happy that you don't get any real office software when you get your computer. I can imagine people having conversations such as the following taking place:
Person 1:Computers are such a rip-off, I just bought a new computer and now I have to buy office because my kids can't use what they gave us for schoolwork.
Person 2:I don't know, I bought my computer from Dell, we got office for free and it works pretty well.
People don't know the real difference between office packages. There's people who have used works for years until they run into incompatibility issues with others. People will use what is shipped. They don't have to pay Microsoft anything to ship a version of OpenOffice with their Dell, and they can advertise that they include a full office suite with their PC. Word gets around, it could become quite a little bonus for Dell. So to say there's no benefit is a little misleading.
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MS Office is $200+ depending on what version you purchase and that is more than your average bear wants to pay to type letters. The business case for this is obvious but doesn't factor in to new school thinking.
The doesn't really help dell gain new customers directly. Adding OO is a cheap way to retain happy and loyal customers and generate positive word of mouth. Dell spends millions on marketing and advertising to gain new customers. Having a full featured office suite included with the system goes a long way toward the PC being a complete solution for many customers.
Any particular reason they can't just send them to the Open Office ftp site? If they just install the vanilla product, there's nothing to do. Source is available, and probably only patches done by Dell that aren't contributed upstream would have to be made available. Soooo.... where's the problem again?
They only have to make their source changes available. If Dell doesn't change the source, which I would bet they wouldn't, all they have to do is point a URL/shortcut to openoffice.org to make the source available as far as I can see.
Are you trying to tell me that Dell takes responsibility for Windows. Last time I checked, even Microsoft wouldn't take responsibility for that! Look at the EULA...
Look, Dell is huge. Running an FTP-site is something an individual like you and me can afford. In no way it will be a "major cost" for Dell. Also, xxx@dell.com wouldn't have to be an actual person. Ever heard of programs responding to email?
Good point. The only way for Dell to make money from openoffice, is if it's going to get Dell more customers. By the way, that's why Dell asks what the customers want.
Considering that Dell already loads the latest version of MSOffice on their Dimensions even when you don't order it, and it takes up disc space and nags you to activate it in trial mode, or buy and put in your key, and causes update hassles with your older, legal version of MSOffice that you transfered from your old machine to you new one, hell yes, Dell could afford to include OO on the hard drive.
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Wouldn't StarOffice from Sun make a lot more sense in this case? Dell can take a cut of the price, and Sun provides support for the product.