Microsofts gonna love this one!
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/Microsofts gonna love this one! something to keep in mind: A good number of these "we're about to switch to open source now!" press releases are not much more than a thinly veiled method of getting microsoft to give the company in question *insane* discounts to keep them on windows.
...And in most of those cases, it's been working.
...And in most of those cases, it's been working.
Oh, I wonder if that will work for me.
I suppose it depends on how much money Microsoft are making off you. If you buy the occasional OS every 5 years, and an Office Suite every 3, I'm going to go with "no".
Didn't the British Government make a statement like this about 4-5 years ago?
They're just repeating themselves and doing nothing about it.
They're just repeating themselves and doing nothing about it.
Well I heard of a lot of companys switching to open source and it turn out to be much more expensive so they switched back.
Well I heard of a lot of companys switching to open source and it turn out to be much more expensive
That's likely to be the fault of the people implementing the switch rather than the free open source software.
so they switched back.
How much did that cost them? :)
I don't know the costs, just heard the story or read it in some magazine.
depends, a lot of open source software is rubbish and lacks support, particularly if you need to have your own custom flavour.
Also might mean job security for useless employees that don't deserve a job, but keep it because no one can figure out the mess they made of their systems.
That and non industry standard software requires extra training which costs money if you have thousands of employees.
Also might mean job security for useless employees that don't deserve a job, but keep it because no one can figure out the mess they made of their systems.
That and non industry standard software requires extra training which costs money if you have thousands of employees.
a lot of open source software is rubbish and lacks support,
Much like closed source software. particularly if you need to have your own custom flavour.
Well if you need your own particular flavour, then there really isn't an alternative to open source software, is there? That and non industry standard software requires extra training
So does industry standard software. lot of open source software is rubbish and lacks support
Name a few and i bet i can make a longer list of closed source ones that are rubbish with rubbish suport ;) Didn't the British Government make a statement like this about 4-5 years ago?
Which one?It was a labour governent who investigated the possibility. Now the EUs independent study has found no loss in productivity for standard pc useage (comparison of linux/open office with windows/office 2003), the conservatives now think its also worth investigating. Other foriegn governments have already switched over with massive savings.
Gotta love how MS keeps claiming that the total cost of ownership of open source is more expensive mainly due to additional training/support required -- and then they switch to such a radically different interface in their Office 2007 product themselves that the effectively throw their entire supposed advantage out the window again.
Good point. Office 2007 has more or less forced me to consider using OpenOffice finally.
Office 2007 is brilliant! It is what Office should have been years ago. It is a bit of a change in thought, but there is no going back once you use it.
I've used it. I still have a beta that works until July or something. I've refrained from reinstalling it thus far...
Office 2007 is brilliant
Yes it is rather nice and shiny, packed with features...
BUT:
A = Everything you can do with open office
B = Everything you can do with MS office
C_lots_of$ = B-A
Tell me what C_lots_of$ has got that is worth paying that much for and i may be convinced.
Put it this way, has anyone ever bought a watch or a mobile phone with loads of fancy bits and peices, like telling the time in beirut at 30 atmospheres or lets you browse tiny un-readable webpages?
After a month the watch becomes just a watch and the phone becomes just a phone.
Dont get me wrong, i love gadgets as much as the next, i just like mine to be actually useful and worth the money.
That and non industry standard software requires extra training
A one off cost and anyway, if someone can use ms office they can sure as hell use OO.o as it looks and feels familiar, it may just take some finding where stuff is. Took me all of a days fiddling to *fully* get used to most of the changes.
> A one off cost and anyway, if someone can use ms office they can sure as hell use OO.o as it looks and feels familiar
For every new employee. Also making sure that all the old required functionality is there, and if the business is anything like the places I have worked all the automatic document generation the company came up with would need replacing.
MS has a good little lock on things with office for now...
For every new employee. Also making sure that all the old required functionality is there, and if the business is anything like the places I have worked all the automatic document generation the company came up with would need replacing.
MS has a good little lock on things with office for now...
Depends if the automatic software simply generates documents, or intergrates with the internals of office via complex macros etc (could be a problem agreed).
Remember, OO.O can load/save all formats from office(doc,xls,ppt) with few or little problems (except mabe MS only macros). It cannot be said the other way round though ;)
In my experience you only need to train a few well placed ones, any new emloyees can simply ask the occasional question from the ones that know. I worked for a company who switched over and they spent next to nothing, as the employees were trained on the fly (and were adept with basic office computing skills in the first place. Those that were not caught on soon enough)
There were moans and groans of course but there always is, regardless of wether the system is better worse people hate change. However dispite the moans and groans the company saved itself loads of money when the next asset refresh was rolled out. Loss of productivity was negligable.
I suppose it depends on 2 main factors, feasibility and good planning.
Remember, OO.O can load/save all formats from office(doc,xls,ppt) with few or little problems (except mabe MS only macros). It cannot be said the other way round though ;)
For every new employee
In my experience you only need to train a few well placed ones, any new emloyees can simply ask the occasional question from the ones that know. I worked for a company who switched over and they spent next to nothing, as the employees were trained on the fly (and were adept with basic office computing skills in the first place. Those that were not caught on soon enough)
There were moans and groans of course but there always is, regardless of wether the system is better worse people hate change. However dispite the moans and groans the company saved itself loads of money when the next asset refresh was rolled out. Loss of productivity was negligable.
I suppose it depends on 2 main factors, feasibility and good planning.
> Depends if the automatic software simply generates documents
The stuff we had tied into the office automation and office objects so it would be a real pain to switch over.
> Dan at D-Grafix dot com (Posted 3 hours ago)
Depends if the automatic software simply generates documents, or intergrates with the internals of office via complex macros etc (could be a problem agreed).
Remember, OO.O can load/save all formats from office(doc,xls,ppt) with few or little problems (except mabe MS only macros). It cannot be said the other way round though ;)
For every new employee
> In my experience you only need to train a few well placed ones, any new emloyees can simply ask the occasional question from the ones that know.
Where I've been getting people trained was a real pain, anything different then what they were used to and they would get totally lost.
I don't dislike OO either, I use it at home instead of Office, it does what I need. My wife on the other hand didn't want to be bothered - and even though 2007 is very different from previous versions she much preferred that to OO, and I still can't figure out why.
The stuff we had tied into the office automation and office objects so it would be a real pain to switch over.
> Dan at D-Grafix dot com (Posted 3 hours ago)
Depends if the automatic software simply generates documents, or intergrates with the internals of office via complex macros etc (could be a problem agreed).
Remember, OO.O can load/save all formats from office(doc,xls,ppt) with few or little problems (except mabe MS only macros). It cannot be said the other way round though ;)
For every new employee
> In my experience you only need to train a few well placed ones, any new emloyees can simply ask the occasional question from the ones that know.
Where I've been getting people trained was a real pain, anything different then what they were used to and they would get totally lost.
I don't dislike OO either, I use it at home instead of Office, it does what I need. My wife on the other hand didn't want to be bothered - and even though 2007 is very different from previous versions she much preferred that to OO, and I still can't figure out why.