So apparently the Microsoft marketing machine is no longer the force it once was. Now it's marketing its competitors! In tech circles, this video has fast become notorious, not just for its crappy production values--but mainly because it makes the people quoted in it sound like idiots.
OpenOffice has its share of problems, but on the whole, it's a solid office suite. I've written an entire book in it. I've shared hundreds of spreadsheets, presentations, and documents with all kinds of people in the 7 years since I've fired up any Microsoft Office product. And while formatting may be off here and there, on the whole it's entirely usable -- not bad for being completely free.
Of all the people we've turned on to OpenOffice, exactly one company had trouble -- and it wasn't trouble with OpenOffice as much as it was with Excel -- the files they sent to their clients running Excel couldn't open them without Excel crashing, dying a miserable death. Which to me sounds like a problem with Microsoft Office, not OpenOffice. (And it's about half of the complaints in this video!)
Microsoft must be feeling desperate: they're telling the world about OpenOffice, and there's probably a lot of people who don't know it exists. Even if they do their best to trash it, they're still marketing it -- helping the world discover it exists.
The criticisms about OpenOffice also apply to Microsoft Office:
- It costs money to provide support
- Macros are hard, and IT staff aren't necessarily able to help
- Document formatting can get messed up if you send it to a different version of Office (or install a different printer, even!)
- It costs money to train people on new systems (duh!)
With all this hot air, Microsoft missed one very valid concern for companies considering moving to OpenOffice: its viablity.
Early this year, Oracle purchased Sun Microsystems, the company behind OpenOffice. And now it's apparent they're willing to let it die on the vine -- they've refused to accept contributions from other people and companies active in the space. And so, OpenOffice is forking.
For the time being, if you want to use OpenOffice, and you don't already have it built into your Desktop Linux (e.g. you're stuck using Windows), I recommend getting the version from Go-OO.org. This version has a bunch of conversion filters for Microsoft document formats built in, contributed by Novell as a result of a joint agreement a few years back. In a few months, however, LibreOffice will be the new suite to use -- a rebranded version of OpenOffice with all the development work of everybody outside Oracle. It's not ready for use just yet, but keep an eye on it here: http://www.documentfoundation.org/.
Meanwhile, here's a big thank you to Microsoft for the following video, and your efforts to spread the word about Open Source!
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