[plug] explanation of free software, OOo in particular

[William Kenworthy]

I find it the other way around!.  The only real problems are dealing
with MS document formats.  If you stay within OO, there isnt a problem.
Importing MS docs into OO is getting very good but not perfect.  Of
course go the other way you can try to import OO docs into MS using MS
products - good luck :)

I use impress a lot, and find it quite good.  Powerpoint is ok, but I
prefer impress to use.  oocalc is quite compatible with excel, but I
tend to use gnumeric for most of my SS work - just nicer.

I have an install of MS in a vmware session for when people send me
files that I have to use MS for (usually some weird formating that hasnt
imported correctly) - doesn't happen often these days that I need it.

When you install, pay attention to the dialog where it asks if you want
to link all your MS documents against OO.  This may not be what you want
for a trial if you are installing alongside MSoffice.  You can also set
OO to use MS formats by default which goes some way towards making the
transition pain free for the less technical, at the expense of losing
the advantages of OO's native formats.

BillK


On Thu, 2007-12-27 at 14:45 +0900, Paul Antoine wrote:
> Greg,
> 
> How about this one:
...
> 
> How do others on the list find OOo??  Am I expecting too much?  Are 
> there simply too few contributors to OOo?  I know Sun has been an M$ 
> software-free zone for a long time (McNealy would shoot anyone who tried 
> to use them), so maybe Sun's biases are driving things?
> 
> Paul
>