Re: [libreoffice-users] LibreOffice and OpenOffice

You're welcome.

I don't avoid telling people about FOSS, I just don't recommend it with as
much enthusiasm as I used to.  And sadly, you are correct about some of that
"paid junk".  :-)  But, there's unpaid junk too.   LOL  You just have to use
all of this stuff often enough to find the gems.

In fact, I will install FOSS software, but only with permission after making
sure the owner of the computer knows that help may not be as easy to get as
they are used to.  I help them as much as I can, but I can't devote my life
to it.

One of the worst mistake computer folks make is to believer that one
particular GUI will be intuitive to everyone else.  Such a fallacy.  Group A
will find GUI A to be intuitive, Group B will not.  But Group B will find
GUI B to be intuitive but Group A will not.

I'm actually a part of that explanation.  I have a friend who, because of
work, had to deal with Windows, when the school district moved from Macs to
Windows years ago.  (The district recently went back to Macs.)  Drove her up
the wall!!  She never really could figure it out, it didn't just didn't make
sense to her.  When her new Dell Vista laptop was stolen I talked her into
buying a Mac, which I knew she would have no problem with.  She knew what
Airport was on a Mac in no time.  It took me 2 weeks to figure it out!   LOL

So, just a little game for fun...  For Windows users out there reading this,
and who have no exposure to the Mac, what do you think Airport means?  Don't
cheat and run right to Google!   LOL

Like you, I don't call folks idiots anymore either.  Those people simply
lack education and knowledge.

I've been around a long time too.  Bought my first computer when the Apple
IIe was King of the Hill!  Now, if we just got manuals as good as were
written back then.  :-(

And yes, I will also keep using Libre Office, but I'll play with some of the
other offshoots of Open Office to see how they differ.  Makes it easier to
tailor a suggestion to someone.


Ken


On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 2:44 PM, MR ZenWiz <mrzenwiz@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 12:44 PM, Ken Springer <snowshed@dishmail.net>
> wrote:
> >
> :
> > It's user support where things fall flat on it's face.  I only have one
> > person in my family and friends who would even have a clue as to how to
> > utilize a mailing list.  It's way too cumbersome and clunky for the
> people I
> > know.  Even I had trouble figuring this one out!  LOL
>
> Thank you for that long and thorough description of what is wrong with
> (most) help features around.  While I have been around for a long time
> and am fairly good at finding what I don't already know how to do, the
> help files and forums are not intuitively obvious to the average
> computer user (what I used to refer to as idiots, but I try to avoid
> that word in this regard) and even sometimes to advanced old-timers
> like me.
>
> That said, I encourage people to use FOSS because it is generally much
> higher quality than that paid junk and *I will shepherd them
> personally through any support or help issues they find, and I am
> happy to do so.  Depriving others of access to FOSS does them a
> disservice, whereas helping them learn about how to find what they
> need to know elevates them beyond the base level beginner and sets
> them on the road to competence.
>
> You keep up your good work and I'll do mine, too.  Onward, LibreOffice!
>
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-- 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ken Springer

"All progress depends upon the unreasonable person."
George Bernard Shaw


Cheap prices make for cheap goods; cheap goods make for
cheap men; and cheap men make for a cheap country!"
President William McKinley


http://www.greeleynet.com/~wordwork/airpage.htm
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