Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Is 3.5.4 ready for business users?

Hi :)
I pushed this question to the marketing list (again) and got this standard official TDF line

"3.5.x is stable, although there are some regressions which impact on
some users. Of course, this is not implying that 3.5.x is perfect, and
we will never have a perfect software as bugs and regressions are part
of the process especially when you are developing new features on a 20
years old code base.

Unfortunately, as it is the case for proprietary software as well, the
only way to check if bugs and regressions impact your usage patterns is
to install the software and start using it."

Note that almost everyone is agreeing that newer releases may have regressions.  Also almost 
everyone except the official TDF line agrees that for greater stability you may want to go back to 
a previous branch that has ironed-out it's problems.  

So, there are 2 contradictory cases that people may be happy accepting one or the other but are 
hopefully realistic enough to know that both are not possible at the same time (as everyone agrees)

1.  Stable and reliable but probably lacking some of the latest fancy new features (not necessarily 
"old", just focussing more on fixing things rather than adding new stuff)  

2.  New features, better support for more alien formats, enhanced Draw or Impress features, UI 
changes such as newer icon sets, better wording in pop-ups and menus.  Not all at once, maybe, 
although it often does seem that way.  Possibly not 100% stable all the time and maybe some 
regressions


Obviously some people do want both at the same time and some people want to deliver both at the 
same time or wish that we did but it's just not possible.  

The problem and the reason this thread started was because; marketing, the devs and the websites 
team decided to try to pretend that the 2nd one was really the 1st when it clearly wasn't!  Just 
wishful thinking rather than a deliberate lie - i think.  

Now we don't know who to trust but we know for certain that we can't trust marketing, the devs or 
the websites team about this issue because they just give us wishful thinking instead of objective 
reality and because they are embarrassed about it they can't admit their earlier mistake.  

The mistake was trying to simplify the downloads page.  Noobs can't handle it there is more than 
just 1 simple big green button.  Adobe, Firefox and many other sites go through long explanations 
of how downloading does not automatically install for you and that people need to take the extra 
step of doing the install for themselves.  Most of those are screen-shots showing to just click 
"Next" but the fact that it does show the list confuses the people that also complain if they are 
not shown each and every step.  

I think we have to draw the line somewhere.  Perhaps 1 big green button for the stable corporate 
version and 1 big gold(? perhaps shimmering?) button for the ultra-latest version?  Hmmm, but then 
the internal help pages need another littler button, errr and then add the languages.  This is all 
tooo hopelessly complicated for most people!!  So you can see why people here wanted to simplify it 
all!!  t was a good effort that just seems to have back-fired a bit.  

"Never believe incompetence when stupidity explains the facts".  In this case trying to eliminate 
certain potential new people's confusion and inability to read and comprehend has led to "a right 
old muddle"!

Regards from
Tom :)  


--- On Sun, 3/6/12, Mirosław Zalewski <miniopl@poczta.onet.pl> wrote:

From: Mirosław Zalewski <miniopl@poczta.onet.pl>
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Is 3.5.4 ready for business users?
To: users@global.libreoffice.org
Date: Sunday, 3 June, 2012, 10:40

On 02/06/2012 at 23:29, "webmaster-Kracked_P_P" <webmaster@krackedpress.com> 
wrote:

> The real big thing is how ready is this line to be used for business 
> users.  During the 3.3.x and 3.4.x line crossover, you keep getting told 
> that this version is ready and that version is not.

I think you are trying to find some universal criteria of "business-readiness", 
which simply does not exist.

Let's say that LO 3.6.0 has some serious bug in one of Calc's economical 
functions. Does it make it not ready for business users? It depends. If you 
are copywriter, who runs Calc few times in a month just to sum some numbers, 
then you can freely start using 3.6.0. If your job involves stock market, then 
perhaps you will prefer to stay with earlier version and wait for 3.6.x with 
bug fixed to come out.

For academic writers, virtually none of OOo/LO is ready for business user due 
to poor bibliography management implementation (although you can use some 
other bibliographic management software, e.g. Zotero or Mendeley, with 
success).

There is no simple answer for that question. Perhaps most conservative users 
should stick with 3.x.6 releases - as latest in each line, they have lowest 
number of bugs.

If you have time, you can check what bugs are know and what are fixed for each 
release. When there are no bugs known in procedures you are using, then 
perhaps you can mark that version as "ready for business users".
-- 
Best regards
Mirosław Zalewski

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