Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: LibreOffice VS MS Office

On 04/21/2011 08:35 AM, e-letter wrote:
> The point is, the business user receives a document in m$ word, is not
> prepared to pay for m$ office and so _chooses_ to use LO, then
> complains that LO is "incompatible" (never that m$o is incompatible
> with LO! Or ODF!).

The only issue I see is with MSO's ".docx" Open Document type of 
documents that came out with MSO 2007.  The original file formats work 
just fine.  How about the compatibility issues with MSO 2010 documents 
being read with 2007?  Have been told be some that there are issues there.

The problem is not that LibreOffice is not compatible with MSO, but MSO 
users are using a bad file format to begin with.  MSO could not provide 
any "working" documentation to the ISO committee when they wanted their 
"x" formats to be the standard.  IF MSO cannot provide the documentation 
on how their own formats work when they wanted it to be the standard for 
the "world" to use, then how are others to get them to work.

That is the real issue.  If all users dump the formats MSO created for 
2007, and beyond, saving their documents in .doc, .xlt, etc., then their 
would be no issue with compatibility.  Switching from .doc to .odt could 
be an issue for them in the short term, since MSO mangled their ability 
to read/write files in ODF's ISO standard file formats [maybe on purpose].

As for blaming the user for choosing LibreOffice and then complaining 
about compatibility, that is never a good idea.  OOo never upgraded 
their Migration Guide from the 2.x version.  Maybe LibreOffice should 
make a separate guide to migrating to LibreOffice that points out step 
by step how to make sure all their files will be compatible with 
LibreOffice and 90%+ of all other non-MS office suite packages.  Give 
them a simple, easy to read document that gives the user the guidelines 
on how to switch from MSO to LibreOffice.  Do not make it a part of a 
larger document.  Make it small and easy so that the average user can 
read it in his/her spare time before they dump MSO and not get their 
files in order.  I tell people to use LibreOffice [OOo before] and keep 
MSO on their systems till they get to the point where they do not need 
MSO to re-save internal/external generated documents to be compatible 
with LibreOffice [OOo, and most other office suite that people may 
use].  I still get documents that cannot be read properly by LibreOffice 
[OOo] or MSO.

> When a business user (who hopefully has made a donation to the FOSS
> community since higher profits may have been obtained by using OSS)
> receives an LO Writer document from a customer that has been corrupted
> during transmission between LO programs installed on customer and
> supplier computers, _that_ is of higher priority to resolve.


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