Is OpenOffice.org a Threat? Microsoft Thinks So

Glyn Moody writes "Most people regard OpenOffice.org as a distant runner-up to Microsoft Office, and certainly not a serious rival. Microsoft seems to feel otherwise, judging by a new job posting on its site for a 'Linux and Open Office Compete Lead.' According to this, competing with both GNU/Linux and OpenOffice.org is 'one of the biggest issues that is top of mind' for no less a person than Steve Ballmer. Interestingly, a key part of this position is 'engaging with Open Source communities and organizations' — which suggests that Microsoft's new-found eagerness to 'engage' with open source has nothing to do with a real desire to reach a pacific accommodation with free software, but is simply a way for Microsoft to fight against it from close up, and armed with inside knowledge."

Comments

Oh it will be

[Alarindris]

...or something will be after the baby boomers die off and gen X and Y are in control.

Seriously, once the people who grew up with computers have the votes and money and all the free time in the world to write angry letters, Microsoft should be very scared. Our parents couldn't adapt to new OS's, but we can. We don't need Microsoft.

All M$ news are carefully worded to show some hate

[gtirloni]

To the point of competing with the worst tabloids out there. Who ares if M$ thinks OO is a threat ? It sure is so what's the news ? "OMG M$ admits OO is a threat.. wow! OO is super powerful now. See!"

Re:I use it because...

[Blakey Rat]

Seriously. You could learn and master the Office 2007 interface in less time than it takes to find, download, and install OpenOffice. That's the lamest excuse ever.

I'd have gone for "I didn't want to pay for an upgrade." That I can get behind. But, "I'm too much of a wuss to learn a slightly different, and vastly superior, UI?" No.

Re:Why are you hitting yourself misses gnu?

[LifesABeach]

I wish I could mod you up one. The parent entry above sounds like a grinning show off employed for m$. Because no one could be that uninformed. There is one area of business that I personally take exception to with m$. That is when a Federal Judge says that m$ Lies, Cheats, and Steals. I tell my children that doing business with the convicted only sets them up for future failure. In the end, the convicted usually repent, and act accordingly; m$ is currently just grinning even more. In my home, at work, and on the street; I tell people that m$ is like the scorpion on the turtles back.

Re:This must be a big joke

[BitZtream]

1. Yes, in a fantasy world, things look different and aren't really better. Thats what happens when you compare fantasy to reality, you get a retarded comparison.

2. Wrong, most office installations now days dont' preload anything. Nice try though. That is, unless you mean by 'preload' that it uses the default OS toolkit rather than loading its own. Either way you look at it, not using the OS toolkit isn't a feature, its a bug that causes inconsistency and unexpected results.

3. Awesome, you just named 3 things that 300 people in the entire world are going to use OO.org for. Thats awesome, but useless the the other 6 billion or so people on the planet. Pointing out how its got some great obscure features that very very few people actually use doesnt' not make it impressive, it shows the OO.org developers are disconnected from reality. They're developing an app that every likes to pretend is an MS Office replacement, except they aren't making features for those users. How many people NEED pyhton scripting in their documens? VERY FEW. Office will save to PDF so thats a silly point to bring up. Great, you can use LaTeX in your presentations, you've found a feature 0.00001% of the OO.org users actually use.

4. False. Educational Institutions are not biased towards geeks, they get the same ratios as everything else. Its just one of the few places geeks actually come out of their basement long enough to realize there are other people in the world. Just because the first time you ran into other people was at your college computer club meeting, and that the only people you talk to are geeks, doesn't mean the proportions are different.

5. I think it already has, its used by a few zealots with their heads so far up their asses they think its god gift to the world, when all they need to do is pull their heads out of their self absorbed asses long enough to realize that the rest of the world has moved far beyond that level of crappy software.