[plug] Linux Desktop Market

[Craig Ringer]

Leon Brooks wrote:
> On Monday 24 October 2005 15:33, Chris Watt wrote:
> 
>>What are the major flaws in OO.o preventing it from being used with
>>Word at the moment and how many users is it really affecting?
> 
> 
> Excel macros, and to a lesser extent a drop-in replacement for 
> MS-Access. Sun are adding macro transport to StarOffice. I have serious 
> and conservative businesses actively interested in OOWriter now, 'coz 
> it obviously works, and works well.

Yep. OO.o is getting pretty good. Calc in particular seems to be 
lightyears ahead - I still loathe spreadsheets, but when forced to use 
them now I don't have to reboot to use them with my sanity intact.

I'm trialling Writer with a couple of the journalists at work now, and 
initial results are pretty good.

I did laugh pretty hard when I fired up Base - the MS Access folks will 
be *pissed*. The UI is such a clone, at least the initial screen, that 
many users are unlikely to actually notice they're using OO.o .

That gets me to one of the issues I do have about OO.o - I still wish it 
had a clean, simple UI alternative to the MS Office clone UI. If you 
know Office, the current OO.o interface is good, but if you just want 
something quick and easy to use that works well, it's horrific.

It's interesting that now that OO.o is gaining some real interest in the 
market MS pull out their thumbs and start doing some new, interesting 
things that make Office look attractive again. Like the ability to embed 
your own XML in Office docs, and PDF export. Coincidence? Maybe, but I'm 
not convinced.

Speaking of interest in the market, it seems like many of the small 
computer shops are now bundling OO.o with systems. I wonder how many 
users notice?

--
Craig Ringer