[plug] explanation of free software, OOo in particular

[Richard Meyer]

Can't help with most of what you asked, but Kubuntu might be better as
default KDE tends to look more like Win than Ubuntu's Gnome.

Just my $0.02

On Thu, 2007-12-27 at 14:30 +0900, Gregory Orange wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> My father-in-law is interested in quality software. He can't quite cope 
> with the change to a Linux install just yet (altho I'll be putting 
> Ubuntu[1] on his second computer relatively soon), but he sees the value 
> in considering alternative software to what came prebundled with his 
> machine. Specifically he's using Thunderbird and Firefox.
> Now, with the grief that various versions of MS Office have caused him, 
> I think OpenOffice would be a big step forward for him. He's interested, 
> and now I just need to sell him on it. Ok, on to my point...
> 
> He's asking questions about free software, freeware, open source 
> software, "Who Writes this Open Office?", etc - all quite valid 
> questions which I can answer usefully, but not succinctly. Can anyone 
> point me in the direction of a nicely written article or page on the topic?
> I've found heaps, but they're white papers, full definitions, discussion 
> papers about the various types of licences, etc. How about one simply on 
> who writes Open Office (some description of 'the community') and how it 
> relates to Star Office and Sun and the rest. Even a touch of history. 
> I'm not asking much, am I (: Altho I reckon something's buried in the 
> OOo website or metasites somewhere... just finding it.
> 
> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html was helpful, but really 
> just for the picture at the top!
> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html is good too - I'll send that 
> to him.
> http://about.openoffice.org/index.html - ugh, where to begin?! There's 
> so much there.
> 
> TIA,
> Greg.
> 
> [1] Or some other distro if someone wants to try and convince me that 
> it's a better idea
> 
-- 
Richard Meyer <meyerri at westnet.com.au>
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. 
William Pitt, 1783

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