[KLUG Members] Re: Calling all Linux novices: -- Mega-ignorance on MS Office!

[John Bridleman]

* Bryan J. Smith (b.j.smith@ieee.org) wrote:
> 
> > yes, but we do need better applications on Linux so we can share the
> > data better with Windows. I'm thinking here of StarOffice/Microsoft
> > Office. StarOffice is nice but there are still those weird docs that
> > don't work.
> 
> This is *MEGA-IGNORANT* statement that I see over and over and over.  As Linux
> users, we are supposed to be _technically_accurate_.  As such, don't believe
> this common, but quite _false_ view!

Either your ignorant or your not. By calling me *MEGA-IGNORANT* your making it personal. Don't.

> First off, the community of Open Source developers can do 0 about that.  Why?
> 
> CASE-IN-POINT:  Microsoft Office for Mac has _interoperability_issues_ with
> Microsoft Office for Windows!
>
> Anyone who has supported both platforms simultaneously can tell you horror
> stores, especially with MS Office 98 and 2001 for Mac when changing files with
> MS Office 97 and 2000 for Windows, respectively.  E.g., MS Excel 98 for Mac
> can't even read MS Excel 97 for Windows files!!!
> 
> It's interesting to note that the StarOffice 1.0.1 for MacOS X developer
> releases maintain better file compatibility, especially in non-Word apps, than
> MS Office for MacOS X.
> 
> And then their's the Microsoft/Autodesk approach of "we only read files 1
> revision back."  And how do they do this?  By _reusing_ attributes of one
> version in another for a different purpose.  E.g., Word XP (v10/2002) reuses
> some attributes from Word 97 (v8) to purposely _force_ people to first upgrade
> to Word 2000 (v9) to read the document, then Word XP (v10).  Again, Autodesk
> does this with AutoCAD as well.
> 
> Er, outside of political comments (like the Microsoft/Autodesk non-sense), I
> want to keep this 100% _technical_.

Good. Let's keep it technical - not personal.

> When you consider the technology, it is _ludicrious_ to choose MS Office as an
> office suite.  Such _technical_-based statements should stay on "MEMBERS" IMHO.

All that is fine to say but the problem comes in when my boss wants to open a spreadsheet that he gets from AmeriTrade and the macro's won't work. It's much easier to sell him on the upgrade to MSOffice than it is to try to get him to look at something that may be technically better, but won't get the job done. 

Besides, what's Microsoft's incentive to be compatible with more than the last version?

I think we have to produce products that do at least as good a job as MS to get users with any amount of MS created data to switch.
--
John Bridleman / www.bridleman.org