[PLUG] Rumors that Windows 7 will kill Linux...
Paul Heinlein
heinlein at madboa.com
Mon Mar 16 20:39:13 UTC 2009
On Mon, 16 Mar 2009, Quentin Hartman wrote:
> I was talking about local apps which have effective[1] feature
> parity with the incumbent. In the case of MS Office, the obvious
> competitors are Open Office and iWork. All of which can exchange
> documents well enough[2], making platform less and less technically
> relevant and more and more preference / aesthetic relevant.
"Well enough" is a good metric when the document's recipient only
needs to read the document, or when changes to it are kept locally.
When full read/write compatiblity is the key, then "well enough"
starts to approach 100%. Most organizations which which I've been
affiliated don't want to spend staff time testing compatibility break
points. The compatibility problem is magnified by differing release
cycles between MS Office and, say OpenOffice.org.
Even when alternative apps are acceptable, there's the question of IT
support, both for installation and ongoing maintenance.
Finally, a note about iWork. I use (and like) a Mac at work and at
home. I'm no anti-Apple bigot. I rule out iWork, however, because it's
the most platform-tied office bundle in mainstream release. There's no
iWork for Windows, much less one for Linux. Apple has no native
remote-display protocol (and VNC isn't multi-user in OS X), so IT
can't provide Windows or Linux users a mechanism to edit iWork docs.
At least MS Office is available for OS X, and RDP is a reasonable
remote-access solution. Regardless of its usability or features, iWork
is the embodiment of vendor-lock-in and only has a place in a Mac-only
shop.
--
Paul Heinlein <> heinlein at madboa.com <> http://www.madboa.com/
More information about the PLUG
mailing list