[brlug-general] Is OpenOffice just "good enough"?

[willhill]

Mostly because it's cheaper, lighter and does the same job sometimes better, 
sometimes worse, more reliably and without limiting other options.  As 
Estrade put it, Office Apps are feature complete.  Printing and display are 
flawless with Open Office and that's what counts for me.  Because I can get 
the same results with a larger choice of software and hardware, which is 
often less expensive, I prefer Open Office.  

It's been five years since I've used Microsoft Office, so I don't really think 
anyone needs it but what I've seen is not positive.  My classmates who rely 
on it for everything often have a hard time with presentations and printing.  
The underlying platform has network and printing irregularities which are 
difficult to fix.  The fancier features, like dual display, have left more 
than one of them standing around dumbstruck at presentations.  The recent UI 
change, which has eliminated old shortcuts, is the kind of thing most users  
dread.  In contrast, I rarely use Open Office but I can figure it out quickly 
and it always works.

I used to be an Excel junkie, but I've moved most of the work to custom 
programs, shell scripts, gnuplot and gnumeric.  Spreadsheets for me are now 
single page jobs to figure something out.  Gnumeric and the others offer 
improved automation and I curse when I'm forced to do the same thing by hand.  
The main problem with Microsoft Office for me is that it would eliminate most 
of this environment unless I spent all sorts of time fooling with my 
computer.   Choice is good, using the right tool for the job is better and 
Microsoft Office limits both.

On Wednesday 16 May 2007 2:13 pm, Dustin Puryear wrote:
> Why do you feel that OpenOffice is better than Microsoft Office?