Re: [discuss] Openoffice vs MS Office Research

[Jonathon Blake]

John wrote:

> anyone know of any good sites/articles/research that compares the two? 

OOoAuthors has a material on migrating from MSO to OOo.

xan

jonathon
-- 
A Fork requires: 
   Seven systems with:
   1+ GHz Processors
   2+ GB RAM
   0.25 TB Hard drive space

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Re: [discuss] Openoffice vs MS Office Research

[Alexandro Colorado]

OOoAuthors.org is a good place they have some articles on the 
differences in OOo

and MSO.

Quoting John William Werner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:


Hello-

I am going to be writing a White Paper about Openoffice and how it compares
to the standard Microsoft Office for my professional writing class. Does
anyone know of any good sites/articles/research that compares the two? Any
ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again,
John Werner
[EMAIL PROTECTED]




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--
Alexandro Colorado
Co-Leader of OpenOffice.org Spanish
http://es.openoffice.org/


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Re: [discuss] Openoffice vs MS Office Research

[Peter Kupfer OOo]

John William Werner wrote:

Hello-

I am going to be writing a White Paper about Openoffice and how it compares
to the standard Microsoft Office for my professional writing class. Does
anyone know of any good sites/articles/research that compares the two? Any
ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again,
John Werner
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

This is a simple site about MS being bad. 



In a way, a flaw in MS is a benefit in OOo.

Do you plan to post your paper on-line when you are done, I would be 
interested to read it. You may also want to see if you can track down 
Bruce Byfield and see if he has written anything.


--
Peter Kupfer -- Using OOo since 'OO4 -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Want to help? http://www.oooauthors.org
For OOo tips: http://openoffice.peschtra.com/tips/ooo_tips_tricks.html
To order OOo: http://openoffice.peschtra.com/distro/ooo_distro.html


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Re: [discuss] Openoffice vs MS Office Research

[John W. Kennedy]

Peter Kupfer OOo wrote:

John William Werner wrote:


Hello-

I am going to be writing a White Paper about Openoffice and how it 
compares

to the standard Microsoft Office for my professional writing class. Does
anyone know of any good sites/articles/research that compares the two? 
Any

ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again,
John Werner
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

This is a simple site about MS being bad. 



Please, no. That article is crap, and citing it can only lead to 
embarrassment. Microsoft's policies are deplorable in many ways, but the 
author clearly got his legal education entirely out of comic books.


Actually, I take that back. I've never seen a comic book that didn't 
comprehend the difference between a crime and a tort.


--
John W. Kennedy
"...if you had to fall in love with someone who was evil, I can see why 
it was her."

  -- "Alias"


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Re: [discuss] Openoffice vs MS Office Research

[Peter Kupfer OOo]

John W. Kennedy wrote:

Peter Kupfer OOo wrote:


John William Werner wrote:


Hello-

I am going to be writing a White Paper about Openoffice and how it 
compares

to the standard Microsoft Office for my professional writing class. Does
anyone know of any good sites/articles/research that compares the 
two? Any

ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again,
John Werner
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

This is a simple site about MS being bad. 




Please, no. That article is crap, and citing it can only lead to 
embarrassment. Microsoft's policies are deplorable in many ways, but the 
author clearly got his legal education entirely out of comic books.


Actually, I take that back. I've never seen a comic book that didn't 
comprehend the difference between a crime and a tort.



My bad I bookmarked it a long time ago and haven't read it lately.

Many apologies.

--
Peter Kupfer -- Using OOo since 'OO4 -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Want to help? http://www.oooauthors.org
For OOo tips: http://openoffice.peschtra.com/tips/ooo_tips_tricks.html
To order OOo: http://openoffice.peschtra.com/distro/ooo_distro.html


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Re: [discuss] Openoffice vs MS Office Research

[Lars D . Noodén]

John,

There seem to me to be few articles that actually compare the two, so if 
you do some analysis yourself, you will quickly be a (world) leader in 
that area.  If you do write something, I'd look forward to reading it.


Check with several libraries in your area (e.g. public and university) and 
see what kind of article databases are available.  They may have full 
article text included.  However, the articles you are looking for are not 
necessarily going to be in "tech" magazines, especially if you are looking 
for reviews which cover how the tools are used in real life.


I'll send citations offlist for the articles I happened to find and keep.
-Lars

PS.  MS seems to tend not to publicize actual functionality and technical 
specifications, but rather focuses on vauge claims so that makes things a 
bit harder.  If you can get a die-hard MS fan to show you where to look, 
you may be able to find some actual technical specifications.  It's a 
different way of thinking.


BTW what do you mean "standard" MS Office?  The file formats are different 
and have varying levels of incompatibility in order to drive new sales. 
So, the file formats are one big difference.  OOo has the advantage in 
supporting OpenDocument, which is an open, XML-based format.  Also, the 
menus are changed around in MSO enough to cause annoyance to people that 
use the program only occasionally.  (e.g. nurses, library directors, 
timber industry managers and real-estate brokers)


Regarding the latest versions of OOo and MSO, there is an extreme form of 
vendor lock-in coming in then next version of MSO which is absent in OOo.

See:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/applications/0,39020384,39199804,00.htm

For similar technical reasons, OOo becomes more robust because it is not 
dependent on the server.  So if your server goes down or your network goes 
down, you can still work with your document in OOo.


I would speculate that the vendor lock-in (via Digital Restrictions 
Management (DRM) technology) in MSO 12 could be easily abused to silence, 
suppress, monitor or censor whistle-blowers and dissident groups, 
individuals, political parties or publications.  If you look at the claims 
of what MS claims the technology does, then it the lack of abuse would be 
simply a matter of goodwill on the part of the people with access to the 
DRM server.


OOo is probably lined up for better compliance with HIPAA and other 
privacy regulations, especially for the DRM'd versions of MSO.  The 
encryption is better.  Also, OOo is not dependent on server to which third 
parties have access. (2000 SP3, XP SP1, and 2003 all grant admin level 
access to a third party)  You may also be interested in investigating if 
either program stores unique tracking numbers ( under whatever 
name, "global unique identifier" ) or if either program uses escrow keys 
to allow circumvention of encryption.


Lars Nooden ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Software patents harm all Net-based business, write your MEP:
http://wwwdb.europarl.eu.int/ep6/owa/p_meps2.repartition?ilg=EN

On Wed, 25 May 2005, John William Werner wrote:


Hello-

I am going to be writing a White Paper about Openoffice and how it compares
to the standard Microsoft Office for my professional writing class. Does
anyone know of any good sites/articles/research that compares the two? Any
ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again,
John Werner
[EMAIL PROTECTED]




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Re: [discuss] Openoffice vs MS Office Research

[Sam Hiser]

On Wed, 2005-05-25 at 22:35 -0400, John W. Kennedy wrote:
> Peter Kupfer OOo wrote:
> > John William Werner wrote:
> > 
> >> Hello-
> >>
> >> I am going to be writing a White Paper about Openoffice and how it 
> >> compares
> >> to the standard Microsoft Office for my professional writing class. Does
> >> anyone know of any good sites/articles/research that compares the two? 
> >> Any
> >> ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
> >>

John-

You've picked a good topic to write about; one for which there is wide
demand but also no short supply.  If you're successful, then Newsforge
or O'Reilly.Net might be interested in publishing.  Feel free to see me
when you are done, if that's acceptable within the exercise.

If you would like to address WHAT'S IMPORTANT about these software
products and highlight an important part of the debate -- and not just
cover the usual boring functionality comparison -- then I would steer
you toward covering the question of relative OPEN-NESS and definitions
thereof (by government agencies as well as businesses and individuals).
Here are some annotated links I've got prepared for another purpose but
which you may find useful...if you should choose to accept the
assignment ;-)

***
OpenDocument

Press Release (May 23, 2005): “Members Approve OpenDocument as OASIS
Standard: IBM, Sun Microsystems, and Others Develop Royalty-Free
Standard for Office Applications Document Format”

OASIS' announcement of the ratification of the Open Document Format for
Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0 as an OASIS Standard is another
positive step toward achieving a software standard for office document
file formats which represents common sense in information and data
management at the organizational and common user level. 

The OpenDocument format makes its public debut when OpenOffice2 goes
“Final,” expected late June 2005. Get OpenOffice2 Beta (containing all
the OpenDocument formats now:
http://download.openoffice.org/680/index.html).

http://www.oasis-open.org/news/oasis_news_05_23_05.php

File Format Politics

Government agency and education leaders, as well as business decision-
makers, are interested in keeping up with important developments in
software standards. Few such developments are more widely relevant or
fraught with obscurity than the OpenDocument vs Microsoft XML Reference
Schemas debate.

In 2004 the IDABC (the agency for Interoperable Delivery of European
eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens)
commissioned an EU consulting group, Valoris, to report on the state of
the leading open XML office suite file formats. IDABC was seeking to
outline and specify a practical eGovernment interoperability framework
that would align IT systems, software applications and office documents
around open and interoperable standards throughout the EU.

In evaluating a number of different possible XML file format
implementations, Valoris narrowed the likely leaders down to 1) the
OASIS open XML file format in OpenOffice and StarOffice and 2)
Microsoft's XML Reference schemas that work with MS Office 2003. 

Links follow here to primary-source documents to help you deal with
important questions like:

  * “In the context of data files, what is the proper definition and
standard of “open-ness?” or

  * “How is a key open standard like XML being implemented
differently by the contending office suites?” and

  * “Do these rival implementations actually meet the EU's own
stated minimum definition of open-ness (despite what the Report
says it concludes)?” 



The Valoris Report:
“Comparative Assessment of Open Documents Formats Market Overview”
http://europa.eu.int/idabc/servlets/Doc?id=17982

Microsoft's comments on The Valoris Report:
http://europa.eu.int/idabc/servlets/Doc?id=17984

Sun Microsystems' comments on the Valoris Report:
http://europa.eu.int/idabc/servlets/Doc?id=17985

Open Forum Europe White Paper (re 'Defining Open-ness'):
http://europa.eu.int/idabc/servlets/Doc?id=18033

IDA's recommendations are excerpted below:


Therefore, it is recommended that:-

  * The OASIS Technical Committee considers whether there is a need
and opportunity for extending the emerging OASIS Open Document
Format to allow for custom-defined schemas; 

  * Industry actors not currently involved with the OASIS Open
Document Format consider participating in the standardisation
process in order to encourage a wider industry consensus around
the format;  

  * Submission of the emerging OASIS Open Document Format to an
official standardisation organisation such as ISO is
considered;  

  * Microsoft considers issuing a public commitment to publish and
provide non-discriminatory access to future versions of its
WordML specificati

Re: [discuss] Openoffice vs MS Office Research

[Kevin Cullis]

See Sun's web site for some info:

http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/index.xml

Kevin

John William Werner wrote:

Hello-

I am going to be writing a White Paper about Openoffice and how it compares
to the standard Microsoft Office for my professional writing class. Does
anyone know of any good sites/articles/research that compares the two? Any
ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again,
John Werner
[EMAIL PROTECTED]




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