Re: [users] [moderated]

[James Knott]

Daniel Pantoja wrote: Thanks for the reply. Totally makes sense. Where I work I have ready access (no pun intended) to MS products and naively assumed everyone had similar access. Given the cost and competition considerations, the alternative and compatible product is a must-have. The easy PDF conversion capability alone makes Open Office necessary. Working for a US company doing business in the US I'm unaware of the ISO issues with MSO, just another reason for OO. Just out of curiosity, why is it free? This app is worth quite a bit: easy PDF conversion, ISO compliant, compatible with Mac, Linux and PC, etc. OpenOffice is sponsored by Sun, who decided to open source their StarOffice and OpenOffice is the result.  You can also buy StarOffice from Sun and get support, along with a few extras not found in OpenOffice.  Many companies, such as Sun, IBM, Novell and others are finding open source is the way to go.  The biggest hold out is, of course, Microsoft. Cingular Wireless 8525 -----Original Message----- From: "James Knott" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: users@openoffice.org; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 11/11/07 9:39 AM Subject: Re: [users] [moderated] Daniel Pantoja wrote: Hi, I'm a new user of the product and I'm curious; what's the purpose of developing OpenOffice? It seems there's already a couple of Microsoft solutions out there for folks who need word processing, database, spreadsheet capabilities; just wondering why the push to develop this suite. Thanks for yoru consideration; I look forward to your response. Aside from the cost, there are many reasons. 1) Lock in. Microsoft tries to force you to buy only their products. Microsoft Office is not available for Linux, and as I understand it, the Mac version isn't fully compatible with the Windows version. 2) Microsoft tries to force their own proprietary "standards", instead of using instead of internationally recognized ISO standards such as the OpenDocument Format that OpenOffice and other packages use. In their recent attempt to force OOXML as an ISO standard, they've corrupted the ISO committee to the point where other standards are now stalled. 3) Microsoft has been convicted on multiple occasions of using illegal methods to force market share. In the process they've destroyed many companies and technologies and have, in general, greatly retarded progress in the computer industry. For example of this, compare Windows with Mac, Linux or even OS/2 from 15 years ago. Other long gone computers, such as Amiga and Atari were far more advanced in many ways than Windows. --