On Saturday 29 September 2007 01:51:59 carol irvin wrote: > I am switching myself to open source programs whenever I > can to save money. It is no more complex than that.
Hi Carol! Um, I convert people to OpenOffice who basically don't give a hoot about the $$$. They adopt it because: * They don't need to get permission to spend $$$ (OK, so that's partially $$$ oriented); & * OOo can often recover broken or virussed MSO documents (-: the delight registering on faces as "the impossible" transpires & a couple of days or weeks of work is instantly recovered is immeasurable :-); & * It spits out PDFs without any extra software; & * It runs on anything (so someone can use a Mac at home vs WinXP at work & still face the same software -- oh, & ($$$) not have to pay for it twice); & * Some users much prefer OOo's stylesheets, or template management, or whatever even down to one lad who prefers the view-nonprinting-characters mode; & * One clear-cut preferral for the better HTML editing facilities; & * They can successfully read & write old MSO (& OOo) docs; & * It's better at importing Plain Text, CSVs or InsertRandomFormat documents; & * Variety of features down to Insert Special Character working better, or simply having Insert Formatting Mark, or sundry other added features; & * so on. In short, you may be doing yourself out of the better parts of the deal by simply sticking to financial reasons, essentially ignoring the others. It's a bit like reading scripture for doctrinal reasons only: you miss out on the really juicy bits. (-: I have Linux users who use the penguin because: * It's free (yay, & most of them don't know or care); & * They can read email, browse the web, & word process; & * There are no viruses (well, there actually are a few, but zero of my users have ever tripped over one, & it's kind of heart- warming to have your users tell of other systems blitzing into the ground in spiralling clouds of greasy smoke while they continue their work unabated); & * Things don't change by themselves (well... the machines are set to auto-update, so things do eventually change, but what they're talking about is the random config changes & transient insanity so typical of MS-Windows machines); & * The tools to fix (or alter) almost anything are immediately to hand. In short: cost-sorta/functionality/safety/reliability/flexibility. Cost is one factor of 5, & in Real Life(tm) is often irrelevant. GIMP is not *quite* the same, in that compatibility with another app (not always PS) is more often a concern, but in general terms the cases are "close enough." Cheers; Leon _______________________________________________ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
