Open Office

[hay u]

On this months NZ PC world magazine (May) I found Open Office 1.1.1

I found it very strange how government departments do not use this great free software package more, for a start off it will generate PDF files, it even does it better than my old "paperport" program that came with my scanner,

Then there is a Open Office email group, send a email to
users-subscribe@openoffice.org and follow replies


The only complaint I have is the "JAVA" plugin a pity this was not included on the CDROM with the magazine, but then I am just been picky today.

[nz_liam]

> On this months NZ PC world magazine (May) I found
> Open Office 1.1.1
>
> I found it very strange how government departments do
> not use this great free software package more, for a
> start off it will generate PDF files, it even does it
> better than my old "paperport" program that came with
> my scanner,

Government departments probably won’t use it because it isn’t fully compatible with MS Office documents. They are probably running a Windows based server technology, in which case Open office is not very scalable or deployable like MS Office is. When using a MS Windows Server and Office you can do all sorts of fancy things like on the fly deployment, user profiles and profile synchronisation, and it integrates with other technologies like Share point Portal Server (which open office doesn’t) etc just to name a few.

Open office is a great system for end users and companies running all Linux based servers, but if you use MS Windows servers and other MS server Technologies like Exchange and Share point Portal you usually need to use MS products like office enterprise wide for compatibility, scalability, and ease of administration.

Regards nz_liam.

[mikebartnz]

>Government departments probably won’t use it because it isn’t fully compatible with MS Office documents.
I don't know what the Government departments use to send to the outside world but they should use a format that anyone can read eg. PDF or RTF.

[nz_liam]

> >Government departments probably won’t use it because
> it isn’t fully compatible with MS Office documents.
> I don't know what the Government departments use to
> send to the outside world but they should use a
> format that anyone can read eg. PDF or RTF.

Agreed, and Adobe Acrobat 6 Pro is verry nice to use

[Dolby Digital]

MS Office became the defacto standard which is partly why it is so widely used in government and business generally. OpenOffice.org (Star Office) has only matured in the last few years. Also OpenOffice.org comes with no "formal" support channels whereas StarOffice from Sun does.

[nz_liam]

I’m all for other clients, helps keep MS at least kinda honest.

But I wouldn’t part with my Outlook 2003, and having just setup and discovered the joys of a properly configured Win 2003 SBS server with Exchange 2003 and Office 11 on the client machines, I must say that I'm very impressed, and for once believe that it is worth what it costs (Which is kinda scary for MS software ).

nz_liam

[mikebartnz]

>Also OpenOffice.org comes with no "formal" support channels whereas StarOffice from Sun does.
Tell me why does any well written software need it. especialy if there is an IT department.

[nz_liam]

> >Also OpenOffice.org comes with no "formal" support
> channels whereas StarOffice from Sun does.
> Tell me why does any well written software need it.
> especialy if there is an IT department.


Because more often that not the IT departments have their head in the sand He, he, they're going to shoot me for saying that

[Dolby Digital]

>>Tell me why does any well written software need it. especialy if there is an IT department.
Vertical market software is likely to be too specialist for the "IT Department". Even well written software needs some support occasionally. Of course when organisations are making decisions on software, support does come into the equation.

I have to ask the question, is MS software well written ;\

[R2x1]

>
> I have to ask the question, is MS software well
> written ;\

Very well written, if I could have printed that neatly, my yr 2 teacher would have been pleased.
As to concepti and execution, if we all wrote to that standard, our garbage collectors would claim we were stealing their stuff.

(Asbestos suit on and sealed)