Open Office - What's the Downside? 312
cclangi asks: "I'm a current Microsoft Office user, and I run a small business as a consultant (mining). I've read about Open Office and all the good things about it, but what about the downside? As a small business owner and semi-literate in things computer-ese (as a user, not as a developer or administrator), what support limitations are there for Open Office. I'm particularly interested in/concerned with compatibility of software for reports, spreadsheets and database apps that I might need to send to/receive from clients. As I've said, I've read the good stuff, and 'how easy it is', but what are things I need to be aware of before considering switching completely to Open Office? Comments and experiences would be welcomed." A couple of months ago, OpenOffice advocates had space to sound of on the reasons to switch to OpenOffice. Now, it only seems fair to give the dissenters a place to voice their own reasons. What are the reasons keeping you away from OpenOffice and on your current office suite?
Simple (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A few items.. (Score:1, Insightful)
There is absolutely NO reason to use ANY clip art on any sort of business paperwork. Just a company logo, somewhere out of the way. Anything else just makes the document look unprofessional, or worse, trashy.
Paperwork is not the time to show off the skills you learned in third grade art and drawing class. Fax headers are not a collage. For God's sake, keep them neat and uncluttered so I can figure out why you are faxing me.
Nothing bad I can think of (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Do you use it on a Macintosh? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:spreadsheets (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Simple (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't get why people ask stuff like this (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not like it costs anything, or you have to uninstall MS Office to install OpenOffice or some other nonsense.
Download it, keep MS Office around for awhile as a backup, and start using OpenOffice. Try using it exclusively for a week, or month, or however long until you feel comfortable that it can do all you need it to do. Them, and only then, should you give MS the boot.
It would be absolutely retarded from a business perspective to proceed any other way - based on anyones advice, no matter how much of an "expert" they claim to be. Just try for yourself - if it fits your needs, great. If it doesn't, you still have MS Office installed, so there is no risk of it hurting your business.
No one knows your business better than you do. Maybe you have special needs OpenOffice can't meet. Maybe you don't. You won't know until you try it out.
Re:A few items.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Clip art in fax cover pages (Score:2, Insightful)
No, people who insist on "100% has to look the exact same including all the bugs" are being silly. Who cares if your 99-page document takes 98 (or 100) pages in OO? The world would be a better place if most people were forced to use a plain-text editor for a while. It would stop people wasting time doing things like adjusting their margins, font sizes, and line spacing so that they hit the 10 pages required for their homework assignment, for one. Or subjecting people to ridiculous popwerpoint presentations and excel spreadsheets trying to polish a turd of an idea.
Of course, that would require the average person to be more literate, as well as less susceptible to OST syndrome - "oh - shiny thingee!" ... like that's going to happen ...
Java runtime? (Score:3, Insightful)
Wait, this is still true? I thought that OO.org hasn't been Java-based since before v1.1.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Simple (Score:1, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:why calc for statistics? (Score:3, Insightful)
Statistics and spreadsheet usage are sufficiently different that even if you are familiar with Excel or Calc as spreadsheets, that in itself doesn't yield familiarity with the statistical functions. R is not that different from other programs for doing statistics and scientific graphics, so if people have any sort of background in those areas, they shouldn't need to learn a lot to use R. Are intro stat courses using Excel? I find that hard to believe given the criticism I've heard of Excel from statisticians.
Not true and you know it (Score:3, Insightful)
You and I and everyone else knows that 99% of what a business uses office for is not time critical tasks. It is opening .doc files attached to emails, commenting on a report, viewing a chart, adding 1-2 cells to a spreadsheet. The amount of time you design some giant new report or huge Excel 10 workbook large spreadsheet is minimal - you do those things maybe once, twice a month.
Unless you are a total invalid who does not deserve to be a manager in the first place, you should be able to judge form the first few minutes of trying if this "task" is going to be too hard to accomplish under OpenOffice given it's time constraints. If you have a report due tomorrow, have nothing done, and don't have time to screw around with OO.org writer - then do it in Word. Whose stopping you? You can try OO.org later, when you have more time.
If you're too afraid to risk ANYTHING with your business, you are not going to innovate, and your business will end up failing. Innovation is the root of success for all businesses. Why would you not want to be innovative with your Office package - something you use every day?
I mean - say I came to your office and said "Hey - I can tell you a way to cut 100% off your photocopier costs by using this new model. I will bring the new model into your office as a free no-obligation trial. You can use it as long as you want. When you feel it is OK andyour workers have learned the new functionality and are comfortable, you can get rid of your old one - keep the new one for free".
What manager would not take that offer? Why then do they not do the same with Office software?