I felt it only logical to make this discussion a new thread. It appears interesting. I suspect it wont be the first time it is discussed and I do hope the Devs take such comparative discussions seriously.
That said, I'd like to start with a Quote from At0mic: > Aye. It's just that working in the "real world" as opposed to ranting on a > Linux forum showed me how far Linux and open-source has to go for even > making a dent in the monopoly Microsoft has on the corporate desktop. It > would be NICE of course if Libre/OpenOffice was used more, but it isn't, and > there isn't as yet much imputus to change. > Change, as constant as it is doesn't come easy for the majority. Habits are hard to break even when proven wrong. Microsoft is both a majority and a habit and it takes the daring and strong to be free. Linux and open-source is not a place for lazy people. Change starts when enough people question status-quo. > When I released this, I decided it's better to stop being so fanatical about > Linux and open-soruce and instead understand WHY people use things such as > Outlook so much, and I discovered it's because Microsoft are damn good at > finding out what their customers want. Implementation needs a little work > sometimes, but they aren't stupid. That's a good one. Guess what people want? The want to get on with their lives and really done care how the catalysts get created. So, it follows that if they're already doing that with Option-A, they wont see reasons to try Option-B even when Option-B may be more suitable for them. I speak based on observations from my environs. People here use M$-Office not because they know about exchange or cool features like automation. They do so because they first knew M$-Office. 90% of these people cant understand serious formula syntaxes for Excel or Calc. They are happy with Summations only or a few more basic stuff. Guess what? I'm discussing business here not individuals. You and I know that Calc will conveniently replace their pirated bloat-ware (bloat-ware because they use less than half the features packed into it ... and worse, its a hacked product). These are the people who need Calc and open-source products the most. They cant afford bloat-ware but for some weird reason they just want the label -- "Hey, I know/use M$-Office too" -- Its crazy Like you said, Microsoft knows how to take advantage of their customer's inclinations (its about the money eventually). These people are lazy so 'ease' matters. Implementation may not be so good underneath but who cares ... they don't even see it. So they 'dope' the less enlightened majority with 'ease' while they tidy up on the hidden mess gradually. It works because changing the majority's collective choice later will be harder when the habit is formed. Here is another example: For instance, I have been porting a tool I developed for 'easing' the pain of fellow lecturers in creating grade/result sheets at our University. It was written for Excel 2003 in VBA. It was relatively 'easier' to develop compared to my route in LibreOffice (well that, because I chose a different language. BASIC would have been much the same ... probably). My discovery is that developing extensions for LibreOffice is W.O.R.K! What is the advantage? The developer is made more aware of the internal workings of LibO. What is the loss? Time! The curve is much more and someone who wants to get going is already gone. So the 'ease' concept sells again for macro developers in M$ world but that doesn't make for better/experienced 'black-belt' developers in the long run (... yeah, I can hear you almost say 'who cares!'). Getting LibO into offices around here means presenting it first before M$ products find their way into those machines. Then the users will never try M$ again even with all the vanilla coatings they come with --OR-- You induce the change by providing 'ease' in form of Extensions in LibO and install libO with those for those businesses then carefully silence M$ products. They wont even miss it. I do that here because those M$ products are pirated anyway. It just makes them more honest business men (lol!). I bet they wont consider M$ again when they're told to PAY FOR THE REAL THING! -- For unsubscribe instructions e-mail to: users+h...@global.libreoffice.org Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted