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List:       openoffice-discuss
Subject:    Re: [discuss] The Big Picture
From:       Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt () earthlink ! net>
Date:       2004-05-31 20:38:43
Message-ID: 200405311338.43298.einfeldt () earthlink ! net
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On Monday 31 May 2004 01:42, Martin Ormiston wrote:
> Hi,
> I have no real idea what Open Office is having just found the
> site. 

Hi Martin, 

I'm a simple end user, and I've also had a few difficulties 
searching the site.  Sorry about that.  Fortunately, you do have 
the community to come to for questions, so you did the right thing 
by posting a question here.

What info do you need?  I can tell you that I am a solo practitioner 
attorney in civil practice in San Francisco, and I use  OOo  
(OpenOffice.org) and SuSE Linux Pro 9.1 in my law practice, and I 
also have a left over Windows 98 computer that I use occasionally.  

Basically OOo is just your run-of-the-mill office productivity 
suite.  Install it, use it, it works.  Not too many mysteries 
there.  The graphical user interface (called the "GUI") basically 
looks and feels like WordPerfect or Microsoft Office.  

A few advantages to OOo:  it's free.  It runs on Mac OS X and 
higher, as well as Windows XP and below.  It can read, write, and 
save your Microsoft Office files.  OOo has lots of powerful 
features, like the stylist, spell checker, one click export to .pdf 
files.  OOo has an integrated suite of programs which are like 
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and a Draw program, which Microsoft Office 
doesn't have.   OOo has clip art, and templates, etc.  

The thing that I like best about OOo is not having to keep track of 
licenses.  That can be a major advantage for a small business like 
mine.

You can actually buy support through Sun Microsystems, if  you want 
a big company, or you can by support through Flexiety.com, which is 
a smaller company that will automatically ship you updates to OOo, 
etc.  Flexiety is here.  BTW, I do not work for Flexiety, or have 
stock in Flexiety or Sun Microsystems, etc.  

http://www.flexiety.com/

There aren't that many disadvantages.  OOo doesn't have reveal 
codes, which WordPerfect has, but Microsoft Office does not have, 
as far as I know.  I haven't found a grammar checker yet with OOo, 
which WP does have.  OOo prints more slowly than WP, but I'm not 
sure if that's because I'm such a stupid end user that I haven't 
set it up correctly still.  I also haven't gotten it to print 
letters as well as I did with WP.  I can't think of that many other 
disadvantages.  

Upgrading is a lot easier for me with OOo than with WP.  With WP, 
you have to spend time shopping, thinking about whether the upgrade 
is really worth the cost, plus the boxes build up on your shelf, 
because you have to keep those boxes for all the paper that comes 
with WP.  With OOo, I just ask a friend with a high speed 
connection to burn a copy for me, and I'm done.  I can even throw 
out the CD if I want, or give it to someone.

I think that you can tell that from a strict functionality point of 
view, I like WordPerfect better than OOo.  However, the license 
hassles just got on my nerves.  I hate keeping paper around my 
office, because as a lawyer, I have lots of paper anyway, so who 
needs more paper?  

I've never used Microsoft Word for much, although I did have to pay 
for a copy once, because there was some Word file that WordPerfect 
couldn't open back when I was just using WP.  As far as I know, 
Microsoft Office doesn't have reveal codes, so it is basically the 
same as OOo from my perspective, except it costs a lot more.  

I am also producing a documentary film on open source software 
called the Digital Tipping Point.  The film will cover the cultural 
implications of the global shift to open source software like Linux 
and OOo.  The reason that I say that is because I have spoken to 
people all over the world, and I have seen OOo used everywhere from 
schools to universities to big business to medium to small business 
to home users.

Good luck.  Feel free to come back if you have any other questions.

Christian Einfeldt

>
> We are seeking reassurance here. Not Tech talk.
> The IT people do that . Do they really want Open Source, or the
> job promoting prospects of reveling in the inanities of
> Microsoft?
>
> All the best. I will take another look, and pass it to my
> organization, when I have 'The Big Picture'
>
> martin
>
>
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