OpenOffice.Org in a Corporate Environment?

robpoe asks: "I've been working on a rollout plan for OpenOffice.org 2.0 for a medium sized network. This network runs a number of different MS Office versions, and we absolutely must retain the Microsoft Office 97/2000/2002 file formats (for interoperability with the public and other entities). Getting our versions of Office to 2003 is $65k+, so we're looking closely at OOo. The problem is, since OOo keeps track of changes per user, and we have users that move around (and no, Roaming Profiles are not an option for us), and you cannot expect a user to change those preferences on every computer they log in to. Let's hear some great deployment plans for keeping the default file type, and even general rollout plans. How are you doing it?"

"It seems that nobody has done this (or documented it) that I've found. Let's see if we can get a good thing going by documenting a good, easy to manage rollout plan. Oh, and the default for saving files has to remain in Office 97/2k/xp format.

What are you using to deploy OOo automatically on your network. Assume that we have capability of login script (batch files / registry changes), but no SMS/ZenWorks/etc.

Re:Store the OpenOffice config file on network dri

[Anonymous Coward]

Just run the entire thing off of a thumb drive or live distribution that they can use anywhere they go that mounts your netdrive ;)

Use the source, Luke?

[marimbaman]

I imagine it can't be too difficult to build your own distro of OOo that saves in MS Office format by default.

in other news....

[mulcher]

For $65k you should be able to bargain with MSFT somehow. Academia does it by department which should be far less than what you pay... and it is department negoiated, not University wide. In other news, expect a slashdot article in a month stating that "I got fired for installing OO 2.0 on our corp. network".

MS Office doesn't even work with highly complex objects and docs... even between versions or across different computers.

My OO.o tips

[saskboy]

I'm far from an expert, but I've been using OO.o for over two years now.

My first tip is at home or for basic users, you can go into
Tools
Options
Java
Disable the Java, and your startup time is almost certainly going to improve.
[Another Slashdotter showed me this trick, and it apparently disables macros or something I don't use much if ever.]

I install OO.o on a computer, and log into the profile that will run it, hit enter a few times to accept the agreement, and say I've already registered then proceed. This loads the quickstarter into the Startup, and if MS Antispyware is running it might even ask if you want it to run every time.

Since I image computers and roll out a standard image when a machine needs redoing, I don't worry about standard config settings yet. Most machines I put it on don't have Word, so I set OO to automatically open Word files, when I install it.

Hosted Desktop anyone?

[ice-e-fresh]

http://www.google.ca/search?q=hosted+desktop+vmwar e [google.ca]

Re:Why not?

[Professor_UNIX]

But he's already running older versions of Office. They didn't just magically stop working when Office 2003 came out and they're going to be a lot more compatible with the Word document format than OpenOffice is. The only ones that tolerated us using OpenOffice to munge Word documents were other techies who could tolerate the formatting being screwed up on internal company forms. If I wanted to make sure it looked right I'd have to boot up VMWare on my Linux box and use OfficeXP.

Re:Store the OpenOffice config file on network dri

[g-san]

Yeah, that will work great when I am in the field at a customer site with no internet access... what else ya got?

I like AC's thumb drive solution...

Better Idea.

[unixbugs]

Why don't you spend 35K on someone to implement all the OOo you can stand.

Portable OOo!

[thecampbeln]

This is exactly what I was going to suggest (but some dumb ass modders downgraded both threads that mention it!?) Just in case the parent falls off, here is the URL [johnhaller.com].

Despite what the parent says, you DO NOT NEED TO PUT THIS ON A THUMBDRIVE! All it really equates to is a fully preconfigured and compartimentalized "install" of OOo. Need to update it? No worries, roll out a new version (or a diff) of the changed files. Everything is housed under the one directory.

I use the portable version of FireFox and Thunderbird for myself and the inlaws because you can always guarentee that you've got all of the config files and user data (bookmarks and emails in their cases) under the one folder, so backups and updates are 100x easier (least for me). YMMV, but it's worht a look!!

Re:This is word processing, not desktop publishing

[Daengbo]

You just want to change the view to "Web Layout." You can do that either by checking it, or by unchecking "Print View."

Perils and Pitfalls

[mpapet]

I'm probably crazy but, I'm thinking it's kind of a "convince me" kind of post rather than a "solve my problem."

Unless someone WAY at the top of the organization drives this, advocating the move is more likely to make you look bad. The first hiccup and the brown-stuff rolls downhill to your door. Present the facts and be done.

If $65K really is an intollerably large chunk of change, then I don't really understand why there's even a question.

Re:Bite the bullet

[Theatetus]

$65k, depending on where you're located, could be much cheaper then the amount of money you'll have to spend on supporting Open Office.

Where is this magical world people are from in which MS Office works out of the box and doesn't require support? I "tech guy" for about 20 small organizations and as of this last invoice 65% of my time is supporting people on MS Office (90% if you count Outlook) because it freezes / craps out / corrupts their files / won't open older versions / won't open newer versions / does weird things where bullets aren't all the same size / messes up multi-column calculations half the time but not the other half of the time / etc.

Do you really work with MS Office installations that don't require support?

Re:Have you checked with your Finance department?

[markdavis]

Our finance department has no problem at all using OO. They have some very complex spreadsheets, but I don't think any use macros, anyway.

By my estimates, OO 2.0 is probably a suitable MS-Office replacement for about 95-98% of users out there (given a nice random spread/variety of users).

Re:Why not?

[Ucklak]

I actually read the fine print.

From Microsoft's own site:
http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/programs/open/d efault.mspx [microsoft.com]

Look at the 'Term' row, it is a two to three year span.
On the certificate that you get in the mail when you purchase an agreement you'll see this line of text:

"...provides you with rights to run the software only during the term of the agreement with Microsoft (nonperpetual)."

hence at the end of the agreement, it becomes illegal to run said software because you no longer have the rights to run it.

Re:Why not?

[Duhavid]

You have a good point.

One issue for that organization, thoughis that the old version will not
read newer MSOfficeversion's files. This is not an issue if
they only deal with internal documents, but if they receive
documents from outside the organization, they will likely have
no control over those external version, and would therefore
be under pressure to upgrade to be able to read the newer
formats.

Open Office in a large municipal environment

[mailuefterl]

It may not address your specific problem so much, but still be of interest for you:
The Citiy of Vienna is currently making a partial "soft" shift to OSS on the workplace, using a selfdeveloped debian-based distribution called Wienux (Wien is the german name for Vienna) that also includes Open Office.
Open Office is also beeing used on workplaces still using Windows and users are encouraged - but not forced - to switch to OO.
See more at: http://www.wien.gv.at/ma14/oss.html [wien.gv.at].
It's mostly German, but some of the Information is available in English too.

Re:OO.org does not have perfect file compatibility

[Goner]

It's true that while OOo doesn't have perfect file compatibility I will offer a few anecdotes to what it can do. Chapter x of a friends doctoral thesis simply would no longer open in Word (word just crashed). We imported it into OOo and exported it back out. (I can't remember if we made any fixes to the doc structure in OOo) and bang it worked in Word again.

Just today, I made a 50 slide presentation, pretty simple, and I exported it to powerpoint. Looks fine on a mac. As a bonus, it also exports perfect PDFs as well.

I really think OOo has come along way from when Wordperfect for linux was the best anyone thought it would get... what was that like... kde 2.0? something... anyhow. There are still a lot of things that it needs, but it is a testament to good open source coding and also to the folks at Sun who in spite of all of the criticism have done a lot for the future of open source computing.

In all fairness, though, there are still glaring errors that can bite you in OOo. The upside is that they are usually predictable... I suppose Office errors are predictable too, they happen when you least want them to. (Note, I'm typing this on a windows machine, so take my M$ (I really just typed MS M$ reflexively... that's a problem I should talk to my shrink about) bashing with a grain of malaria research funding money)

Re:Store the OpenOffice config file on network dri

[klubar]

The original poster is considering using OO to save money. The cost of thumb dries (even in bulk) will be $15/piece. Formatting, distribution, training and replacing lost drives will add another $20 to $30 per user. Add in the cost of a couple of snapped off USB ports when someone whacks the PC with the thumb drive in it, and you're pretty close to the cost of just buying office.