RE: Proposed Letter Text to Decision-makers - Re-Draft

These are valid points, however, it's not a religious issue with me.  I
don't think that everything has to be open source.  If someone is making
a good product, buy it.  Microsoft Excel is a very good product.  I
think you would be better off pushing open formats (which Excel format
isn't).  Yes, you can do all of those macro type things in Open Office
but you're not going to get the millions of people who are already
trained to use a very simple macro facility to learn any kind of
programming or scripting language.  These are accountants, budget
officers, comptrollers, disbursing officers, and secretaries, not
programmers.  One of the things that contributes to people not wanting
to use open source is to push an inferior product on them telling them
that it is "just as good".  In this case, it isn't.  My wife is both a
programmer and a comptroller and I worked very hard at getting her to
switch to Open Office.  She had no problem with the word processing and
presentation software but the spreadsheet software in Open Office just
isn't there yet.  I agree that you should point out that Open Office
will run on Windows but if you burn them once with an inferior product
they'll just tend to stay away the next time.

V/R
Jan Depner


On Sun, 2003-01-05 at 12:41, Russell McOrmond wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 3 Jan 2003, Depner, Jan wrote:
> 
> > I just thought of one other thing.  Bill's post brought it to mind.  The
> > point about Excel is valid.
> 
>   Please note that OpenOffice.org (and the Calc component) can be scripted
> through a number of languages including StarBasic.  It isn't visual basic,
> but it is my understanding (not from personal experience) that similar
> functionality is available and then the macros are available
> cross-platform.  I also believe it is possible to script OpenOffice.org
> from VisualBasic, but then you are stuck with your macros on Microsoft
> platforms.
> 
>   See:  http://api.openoffice.org/
> 
>   I have sent a message to the OpenOffice.org marketing team in the hopes 
> that someone who is more 'in the know' will add in some documentation to 
> clarify this question.   I agree that it is a critical question, but one 
> where we should be trying to enhance OpenOffice.org's documentation and 
> functionality, not give up and run Microsoft Office.
> 
>   From a FLOSS public policy standpoint, adoption of Microsoft Office
> under Linux is a step backward.  Operating Systems aren't all that
> important in the big picture, and all the focus on Linux (The kernel or
> the distributions) is entirely misplaced IMNSHO.
> 
>   Where users interact with each other over the network is where the
> issues are and "networking effects" are created.  What operating system is
> in use is important to the person sitting at that specific desk -- what
> browser, email package or office suite they are using may affect everyone
> they interact with.  OpenOffice.org/Koffice/GNOME office, and Mozilla.org
> (and derivatives) are the critical killer applications for FLOSS on the
> desktop.
> 
> 
>   It is much more critical for us to try to get people to adopt
> OpenOffice.org and Mozilla.org on Microsoft Windows.  I only see long-term
> negative effects to using the Microsoft Browser or Microsoft Office under 
> a FLOSS operating system.
> 
>   For an article still in draft and aimed at a Government of Canada
> audience, focusing on OpenOffice.org, please see:  
> http://www.flora.ca/russell/drafts/office-citt.html
> 
> ---
>  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
>  Any 'hardware assist' for communications, whether it be eye-glasses, 
>  VCR's, or personal computers, must be under the control of the citizen 
>  and not a third party.   -- http://www.flora.ca/russell/
> 
> This Linux in Government list is sponsored by Linux Journal.


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