Thanks for your response, Chris. I can understand why large packages scare people away. Maybe the problem lies just there, people try to work on Openoffice, which is a monster instead of trying to work on something smaller, the "compatibility layer" of Openoffice for example.
Microsoft offers an impressive package with MSOffice and it can be hard to compete with that. But my idea is not that we (Openoffice) should try to (initially) compete with the whole thing. My priorities (and I think 90% of people would share that) are: #1: Compatibility: I expect to open a .doc/.docx document and be able to see it correctly. I expect to save it, close it, and be able to open it again looking the same. I expect to be able to share documents with other users independently of the OS they use. #2: Features: the cool stuff. Regular users turn on a Linux machine, open email, download a word file and think... wow, this works quite well so far. Then, they open the file and, if it is mildly complex, they start being frustrated with Linux. I "converted" a couple people to Linux lately, and all of them share the same feeling. Linux (Ubuntu) works great! It doesn't give half the problems MS gives, but at the same time, they are starting to be frustrated with Oo. In my case, I ditched Ubuntu after Dapper for a couple of years just because MacOS had the "proper" MSOffice. No more worries about compatibility (well, a couple of minor ones, but what a difference!). Now I'm back to Ubuntu with (Jaunty/Karmic) in all my computers but I do have to keep VM with MSOffice and a strong will to fight with all the compatibility/format problems of Oo. It's a lot of time wasted, and I don't really have it. We (Ubuntu/Canonical/Oo/...) should work to stop that trend towards frustration with Oo->Linux and the market share will steadily grow. -- Compatibility/Format problems of OpenOffice are overwhelming - Office Papercuts project? https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/406328 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
