--- Louis Campagna <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I am a student at Concordia University in River > Forest, Illinois. I am > also a student worker for the IT department. > > One major issue with converting an entire campus > from Microsoft Office > to OpenOffice would be the amount of confusion and > increased support > calls. There are a lot of non-tech savvy people out > there who get used > to one product and refuse to switch to something > else because they would > be leaving their comfort zone. Many, many people are > familiar with > Microsoft Office products whereas even though OOo > works just as well, if > not better, people still find it to be a new program > to learn and get > used to. This a valid point. But may I also highlight that at first glance, some of my friends could not tell the difference between openoffice and MSO. And they were pretty impress with the export to pdf function. Perhaps a direct conversion to OOo is not feasible. Maybe installing both OOo and MSO will be a better solution. At least those people who wish to use OOo will have the freedom to do so. > Another issue would be policy and procedure related. > For example, > Concordia University is pretty much a complete > Microsoft shop. We have > Windows domain servers, Office 2003, Exchange > Server, etc. Pretty much > everything that we do is tied into Windows Active > Directory. If you're > running Outlook 2003, it will connect to the > Exchange Server via a MAPI > connection and download your messages immediately > upon arrival. Also, > faculty and staff have access to the "Global Address > List", which is a > list of everybody on campus populated through Active > Directory entries. > E-mail accounts are tied to their Active Directory > user names, Secondary > inboxes and Outlook calendar sharing is based on > user permissions as well. > > All of this is an integral part of daily functions > at the administration > end of the network. Take away Microsoft Office, and > you're taking away > Microsoft Outlook. You don't have near the amount of > options available > going through Mozilla Thunderbird or Outlook Express > as you do with > Outlook 2003. Prior to the upgrade to Office 2003 > and the implementation > of the Exchange Server, everyone's e-mail account > was IMAP based, which > worked, but it was not nearly as efficient as the > MAPI interface. If > something like that were taken away, the IT > department would be taking > three huge steps backward. Evolution can connect to Microsoft Exchange servers. Unfortunately, it runs on linux. Although, there is a windows port, the project doesn't seem to be active. In addition, Evolution on my linux box is inteegrated with OOo as well! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novell_Evolution http://www.gnome.org/projects/evolution/ http://evolution-win32.sourceforge.net/ > Don't think that I am trying to be a Microsoft > advocate. I most > certainly am not; I run OpenOffice at home and > absolutely love it. My > argument comes primarily from the IT standpoint and > what it would do to > the integrity of daily functions across the campus. > > -Louis Campagna > > Daniel Currier wrote: > > I am a student at Illinois State University and am > trying to get all > > the computers switched over to OO but what I have > been hearing is that > > the school has contracts with Microsoft and can > not switch. Is there > > any subjection for encouraging this project along? > > The school has presently a CD that they hand out > to any student or > > facility at ISU containing programs like Mozilla > products. The web > > site can be located at > http://www.ilstu.edu/helpdesk/downloads/. Next > > year they might put open office on this CD. The > below quote is from > > the Tec dept. after I suggested it to them: > > > > "Thanks for your suggestion. We actually had a > student technology > > advisory committee review OpenOffice for use in > University Computer > > Labs and possible distribution on the itools cd. > Unfortunately though > > it was decided not to offer OpenOffice on the next > release of the > > Internet Tools CD or in University labs, due to > unknown conflicts with > > other programs. We've heard many good things about > OpenOffice though > > and I'm sure the use of OpenOffice on campus will > be revisited next > > year after more testing and research has been done > with the software. > > Please let us know if you have any other > suggestions. Thanks." > > > > Is there any way to help them with these "unknown > conflicts?" > > > > Also is there any way to upgrade the OO spell > checker? > > > > How can I help the two points on you web site: > > "Walking post-secondary schools through the > process of including > > OpenOffice.org in their portfolio of applications > > Resolving questions related to using and deploying > OpenOffice.org by > > faculty, students, and staff” > > > > Thanks, Daniel > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > For additional commands, e-mail: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! 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