The general negative comments about this have generally sounded like people are expecting this to "kill the beast" with one swift move. That is not the case.
Currently, we have many great open source office suites. Great ones. However, they aren't that compatable with each other. A document written in one won't open in another and so forth. What this means now, is that we have compatability. That is the first step to slaying the beast that is MS Office.
Why is MS Office so bad?
- Filesize: MS Office files are alot larger then they need to be. Alot. Save a simple string of 10 words to see what I mean. Now do the same thing in a base level app, such as notepad
- Compatability with previous versions: MS's business model involves adding things to these formats that are deliberatly not backwards compatable. Why? To force customers to upgrade. Having *.docs there that you need to open, but cant, means that you need to upgrade your computer (read taht again, not just office, but the general population assumes that if something isn't working, a new computer, new windows, new office is the only thing that can fix it)
- Compatability with other programs: Programs that are not MS Office cannot open MS Office documents without spending alot of time reverse engineering them. If any other program did this, it would not survive. MS only does because it holds a vast majority of users.
- Office Help Assistant: QED
The thing alot of people don't realise is, that if they support open standards, it benifits the end customer. Often, the programs that support these standards are free. That includes upgrades, and access to vast amounts of help information. Not everyone that supports open source programs is a antisocial nerd:P
If someone came to me and said "I will give you a fully working OS, full Office suite, and I will give it to you for nothing" I'd be an idiot not to take it.
The only thing the open source community needs to do now is to get rid of the mindframe of the general public that "Open source is hard to use". Do that, and the beast is slain.
Slashdot Mirror
...but then how are you going to make a trilogy? No point stopping the cash cow at only one movie
So will the next move to come out be Episode -II?
no... the movie was pure crap wrapped in bad acting.
The general negative comments about this have generally sounded like people are expecting this to "kill the beast" with one swift move. That is not the case.
:P
Currently, we have many great open source office suites. Great ones. However, they aren't that compatable with each other. A document written in one won't open in another and so forth. What this means now, is that we have compatability. That is the first step to slaying the beast that is MS Office.
Why is MS Office so bad?
- Filesize: MS Office files are alot larger then they need to be. Alot. Save a simple string of 10 words to see what I mean. Now do the same thing in a base level app, such as notepad
- Compatability with previous versions: MS's business model involves adding things to these formats that are deliberatly not backwards compatable. Why? To force customers to upgrade. Having *.docs there that you need to open, but cant, means that you need to upgrade your computer (read taht again, not just office, but the general population assumes that if something isn't working, a new computer, new windows, new office is the only thing that can fix it)
- Compatability with other programs: Programs that are not MS Office cannot open MS Office documents without spending alot of time reverse engineering them. If any other program did this, it would not survive. MS only does because it holds a vast majority of users.
- Office Help Assistant: QED
The thing alot of people don't realise is, that if they support open standards, it benifits the end customer. Often, the programs that support these standards are free. That includes upgrades, and access to vast amounts of help information. Not everyone that supports open source programs is a antisocial nerd
If someone came to me and said "I will give you a fully working OS, full Office suite, and I will give it to you for nothing" I'd be an idiot not to take it.
The only thing the open source community needs to do now is to get rid of the mindframe of the general public that "Open source is hard to use". Do that, and the beast is slain.