OpenOffice 2.0 will likely put a hurt on Microsoft 13320

Buford

I don't see it as such. His answer to my question didn't make any sense. Here is a repeat of exactly what transpired. Let's continue from this point.

(Him - listing benefits of OO) 4. Freedom to deal with non-Microsoft-using customers.

(Me - responding) Can you name a single business that uses non-MS format documents with their customers and clients? (.doc and .xls are the de-facto standards) Is there any company that emails bids and proposals in a format the recipient may not be able to read?

ASCII text and WordPerfect files are not a valid answer. MSO can easily handle both formats. I don't buy that lawyers use WordPerfect either. I've had some legal work done last year and in both cases the lawyer sent me .doc files. Is there anything to back-up this 'myth' or should I simply accept it.

I'm not saying that meeting the challenge is meaningless. I'm saying that the challenge was never met. Show me a mainstream buisiness or industry that uses documents that MSO can't handle. After all, the benefit of OO is that it "Freedom to deal with non-Microsoft-using customers" - Show me an example of this freedom is what the challenge is. Because publishers wants ASCII text is NOT a reason why someone would switch from MSO to OO.

My response would be the same as it was before. OO is a fine app but people need a *reason* to switch. Would you sell your computer and by another one that is essentially the same as the one you just sold? No! Why would you.

So why would a company drop MSO and start using OO? There needs to be a valid reason to do this. Companies won't switch "just for fun." The only possible reason is price but that doesn't seem to be enough.

Currently MSO is the king of the office suite. If OO is to replace MSO then it needs to be significantly better so that people will switch. Being 'just as good' isn't enough. It needs to be better than that.

That's the point I'm trying to make. Re-read my original post.