[libreoffice-users] Re: Engaging Users in the LibreOffice Project

On 11/3/13 6:49 PM, jonathon wrote:
> On 11/03/2013 04:32 PM, Ken Springer wrote:
>
> > Using a feature by feature comparison, there is no way LO or Kingsoft is serious competition for 
> > Office Pro.
>
> A point you are missing, is that even in a corporate environment, all of
> the parts offered by MSO Pro are not needed by all of the employees who
> use the office suite.

But in total, all parts offered by MSO Pro may be used by someone in the 
company.

Regardless, that's irrelevant to the discussion.  That discussion is 
which MSO offering is LO nearest to.

> If it was cheaper for the company to buy three quarters of the staff MSO
> home edition, and a quarter MSO business edition, and a quarter MSO Pro,
> they would do that.

But they can't.  So it's moot.

> Microsoft's cheapest business license is for MSO Pro.
> Assuming it is still offered, the most expensive license is for MSO
> Enterprise edition.

MSO Enterprise may be available, but it's not on the website.  Didn't 
spend a lot of time searching, but found no Enterprise 2013.

> If you want to compare office suite with office suite, MSO Enterprise
> Edition is the only thing on the market, that offers all of the
> programs, from the same software maker.  All of the other, similar
> solutions, use packages form several different software vendors.

I'm missing something here, would you expand on this?

> ( I don't know if Microsoft still offers MSO Enterprise Edition. Back
> when the business I was working at looked at it, it was not listed on
> the Microsoft Product Page alongside the other MSO offerings.)
>
> > > > If you want to entice people to switch from Product X to LO, you not
> > > > only have to be as good as Product X, you have to be a Helluva lot better.
> > > To be serious competition, you just have to be roughly as good.
>
> > Those are standards I do not accept.  You should aspire to be the best
> > you can be, not just "good enough".  Yugos were "good enough".
>
> "Good enough" is the mortal enemy of "superior".

Not in the long run, if you want to be, for lack of a better phrase, in 
first place.  Sooner or later, someone kicks your butt off the pedestal.

> > Au contraire, my friend, as I just pointed out with the charts above, LO is competition to the 
> > mid-level version of Office only.
>
> For 80% of the MSO user base, MSO Pro is overkill, which is why LO is a
> more appropriate option that MSO Pro.

That depends on the users needs.  While I agree with your many will buy 
Pro when it's not needed, that's also irrelevant to the discussion.

> > Ford doesn't just compete with Chevy, they compete with Honda, Toyota, BMW, Volkswagen, 
> > Mini-Cooper, ET. AL.
>
> At least you didn't put Lamborghini in that list.

Dang, I knew there was one I missed.    LOL

> > As noted above, I've listed why LO is not serious competition except for a single version of Office.
>
> You do realize that Microsoft has stated several times, in public, that
> OOo was the direct cause of their lower earnings, and reduced
> profitability, don't you.

So?  How is that relevant to a discussion/comparison of features?  All 
that statement does is confirms Paul's assertion that the mindset of 
"you have to have MS Office" is weakening.

> As such, even if it was only one version of MSO that you consider it
> competitive with, it took enough marketshare away from Microsoft, that
> they decided it was better to offer their product gratis, with embedded
> advertising, than to compete on the basis of features within the product.

Which MSO product is gratis?  There's a price tag for all 4 packages of 
MSO, but there's is a first month free trial period for Office 365 after 
which it's a monthly subscription fee.  I couldn't tell if that process 
is one that requires you to expressly cancel the subscription or not. 
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/compare-microsoft-office-products-FX102898564.aspx

--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 24.0
Thunderbird 17.0.8
LibreOffice 4.1.2.3


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