Re: [libreoffice-marketing] LibreOffice's role in a MS Office world

On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 2:25 AM, Jay Lozier <jslozier@gmail.com> wrote:
> Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice are free/no charge for all users. Google
> Docs is free for personal use. Office 365, I believe, requires a
> subscription which can get expensive over time.
True.

> AOO and LO are installed on the users machine(s) and do not require any
> Internet access to use. You may need access to sync files with Dropbox or
> some other similar service. I rate this as major advantage - you are not
> dependent on an Internet connection.
For users with no or limited Internet access, I probably recommend
them to use AOO at this point.
Since AOO is stuck on 3.4.1 now; 4.0 release is far away.
If I install LibO 3.6.5 today, what if my "client" somehow install
LibO 4.0.0 a week later and find it less stable?

> Google Docs and Office 365 require an active connection to use. The main
> advantage of this is with collaboration with others in theory at least. The
> major problem is the quality of the connection.
True.

> LO is ahead of AOO currently in terms of development due the problems AOO
> had in the transition from Oracle to Apache. Google Docs and Office 365
> being "in the Cloud" should always have the most current version available.
Yes, LO is more feature-rich.
But I'm not sure which is the right upgrade policy for non-contributor yet.
I guess it would be always use the major release before the latest,
e.g., use 3.6 when 4.0 is out.

> Installing LO or AOO is no more difficult than installing any other software
> on Windows or a Mac. The problem is user updating/upgrading on Windows and
> Mac. LO is addressing this with a notification that a newer version is
> available in 4.0.
Cool.

> The issue of updating software particularly on Windows is thorny one because
> there is no central Windows database or easy method to update all the
> installed software. MS only supports their own and all 3rd party software is
> generally ignored. This is why many vendors have nagware to remind users to
> update in Windows.
In-place upgrading like Firefox would be good enough for personal use.
Not sure about large deployment.

> The major advantage of LO is it installs a broader suite than many of the
> MSO groupings.
Because we also contains Base?

> Also, do not forget that major version upgrades of MSO cost money. MS only
> offers free service packs and patches for the currently supported versions.
> Also, MS appears to be pushing Office 365 because of its subscription based
> model. My analysis is for many individuals the subscription is a horrible
> long term deal because over time you will spend more than if you bought it.
Let's say a user has MSO 2000, XP, 2003, 2007, 2010.
For MSO 2000, XP, 2003, they consume quite little RAM so upgrading
productivity suite would require machine upgrading also.
the cost of productivity suite is less significant in this case.
For 2007, 2010, upgrading is not necessary yet I guess.

> If your have budget problems then price is major issue. Being able to afford
> a good office suite is important to many. So the price point ($0) is
> important for LO and AOO for any and all versions. With either one can
> upgrade to the latest version with only a time investment.
> The marketing problem for LO and AOO is that neither can afford massive
> advertising campaigns which MS or Apple can do. Our advertising is more word
> of mouth.
> One issue to remember is that most users will not use all the features
> available in any office suite. Unless you need a very specific feature, IMHO
> all the options will have the features you probably need.
The problem is that it is a MSO world at least in some regions.
You may check one Hong Kong university's so called "IT Proficiency
Test", it is mandatory.
http://www.sitc.cuhk.edu.hk/
With people grow up in Windows + MSO mindset, they believe MSO is only
way to go and thought quirks even bugs of MSO as some pain one must
take in life.

Yes, LO or AOO is free of charge.
But, are there support staff available?
But, how can people find MSO hard-to-use be trained to use LO or AOO?
In the libraries, there are always a shit load of MSO books but almost
no LO or AOO books.

And, Yes, MSO is bloated and many features are seldom used.
But what if the features are already used and how to handle these documents?
But what if a user already used to some of the features?

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