Re: Why Aren't Open Source Tools Being Considered?

Subject: Re: Why Aren't Open Source Tools Being Considered?
From: Brian Gordon <elasticsoul2003 -at- yahoo -dot- ca>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 14:49:47 -0400 (EDT)


Just discovered a couple of other reasons OS tools are
"not being considered," through no fault of their own.
Keep in mind that I'm at a software startup that uses
all kinds of OS tools for other things, but not for
documentation. They did consider Open Office some time
ago.

* Many employees use MS Outlook. Outlook is the only
product, apparently, that syncs well with PDAs.
* OO documents and Outlook do not play nicely
together, at least when the OO doc is saved as a Word
doc. In fact, opening such a doc appears to crash Word
and corrupt all open Word files. (As I recently
discovered, the hard way.)
* Clients use MS Office.
* Management uses MS Office, and there's a learning
curve to OO. While developers at this company learn
new stuff all the time - and they hire people with
this attitude - management does not. No further
comment. :-P
* Already paying for an MSDN development license and
support, so the additional cost of a site license for
MS Office was not prohibitive.

If it is any consolation to OS producers, I do believe
it is inevitable that OS will put a severe dent in MS
market share over the next X years. MS can't compete
with free. :-) It's how they managed to dominate the
market for browsers, after all.

All the best,
Brian

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Now Shipping -- WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word! Easily create online
Help. And online anything else. Redesigned interface with a new
project-based workflow. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l


---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.



References:
Re: Why Aren't Open Source Tools Being Considered?: From: HBacheler

Previous by Author: Re: Word still going crazy
Next by Author: Carpal tunnel or RSI
Previous by Thread: Re: Why Aren't Open Source Tools Being Considered?
Next by Thread: Opening multiple instances of Word


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads