Libre Office being recommended on Microsoft Answers Forums!

users
#21

Wow!
They sound interesting. I am getting the impression that most people in
OpenSource projects have a similar role although we usually have more control
over how deeply involved we get and in which parts of the project.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#22

David H. Lipman wrote:

From: "Tom Davies"<tomdavies04@yahoo.co.uk>

Hi :slight_smile:
Oracle managed to mishandle OOo so badly that they couldn't "monetise it".
Apparently IBM pushed Oracle into donating OOo to The Apache Foundation a few
weeks ago.

There are Apache people in TDF (and some TDF in Apache) lists to help the 2
projects work together more closely and people are now allowed to work in both
again. It's bit weird because Oracle is not particularly close to Apache so
it's possible they were attempting to hamper Apache by giving them a "poisoned
pawn". I don't think Oracle were expecting Apache to suddenly work with TDF,
effectively draining the poison and making OOo much more viable. Then IBM
donated a lot of their Lotus code to Apache making OOo even more viable.
OpenSource co-operative competition between projects beat the proprietary
mind-set again.

Most MS people are probably very unaware of these rapid changes that have taken
place in the last few weeks so they probably do think they are fighting
"Oracle's OOo" by suggesting LibreOffice instead. Still, it's probably best not
to inform them because they seldom appreciate being given better intel
especially if it's not directly from MS.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Many of the MS MVPs I know aren't swayed by Microsoft and suggest *best* solutions that
may not be a Microsoft solution.

As has been done on the forums that I have seen. It has been suggested many times that if a person needs 100% compatibility with MSO, use MSO. Plain, simple and to the point.

Andy

#23

Hi :slight_smile:
Great idea and that is certainly the way MS would like it but sadly MS Office
2010 documents often seem to go a little wrong in MS Office 2007 and
vice-versa. Earlier versions of MS Office can't read/write the format used by
MS Office 2010 or 2007 at all without installing an extra patch. It's not just
a case of using MS Office but of using the 'right' version too. It helps push
people into buying the latest one and when the newer one comes out hesitate a
little before everyone else gets it too. Smart.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#24

Tom Davies wrote:

Hi :slight_smile:
Great idea and that is certainly the way MS would like it but sadly MS Office
2010 documents often seem to go a little wrong in MS Office 2007 and
vice-versa. Earlier versions of MS Office can't read/write the format used by
MS Office 2010 or 2007 at all without installing an extra patch. It's not just
a case of using MS Office but of using the 'right' version too. It helps push
people into buying the latest one and when the newer one comes out hesitate a
little before everyone else gets it too. Smart.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

All the facts are pointed out as well, like the incompatibility of some versions of MSO. Of course that is how they make their money, vendor lock-in. Which is also covered in the replies.

Andy

#25

+5 that's what I did 12 years ago when my Win ME died.

I can understand that! Win ME was worse than Vista (if that's possible!(.
However, using both Linux and Windows 7 I can say that Win 7 is actually not
bad.

Does that mean that it has multiple desktops and that the drive
letters are gone?

Multiple desktops is more of a window manager issue rather than a OS
issue, but anyway, people in Windows aren't as used to use different WMs
as people who use X in the UNIX world are.

There was a tool to add multiple desktops to Windows, part of the
Powertoys pack for Windows XP, but I don't know if it works with 7:

Direct link: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=211482
The powertoys page: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/windows-xp?T1=PT

And for some context: http://enwp.org/Virtual_desktop#Windows --
according to this, there's another tool, Desktops.

From its description, it seems Desktops is better than the powertoy, but

I never tried it.

#26

Yeah, I'm not surprised to see an MVP giving a good answer. Now if it
were an MPM, then I would really be surprised.

http://www.unix.com/whats-your-mind/33991-windows-korn-shell.html

#27

+5 that's what I did 12 years ago when my Win ME died.

I can understand that! Win ME was worse than Vista (if that's possible!(.
However, using both Linux and Windows 7 I can say that Win 7 is actually not
bad.

Does that mean that it has multiple desktops and that the drive
letters are gone?

Multiple desktops is more of a window manager issue rather than a OS
issue,

And what window manager does Windows use by default?

#28

The default on, which is the 'windows'-windows manager :wink:

But this does not mean no one can write another windows-managers which
will run on Windows....

#29

Hi :slight_smile:
It's the older KDE on Vista & Win7 isn't it? lol, i am joking but it was clearly
inspired by KDE. The "Start" button menu operates almost exactly the same way
and it's quite different from the Xp one.

The Windows one in Vista and Win7 is called DWM (=Desktop Window Manager)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_Window_Manager
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa969540(v=vs.85).aspx

Apparently there is one created by someone else that can be added in but i
haven't tried this one
http://www.actualtools.com/windowmanager/
The taskbar looks suspiciously like the Xp one which might be the whole point of
course since people probably don't like the change between Xp and 7.

Desktop Environments generally include a WM by default but the WM can sometimes
be swapped out for something else
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_Environment#Gallery
This gallery shows a slightly different look from those DEs running on my
system.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile: