How to hurt a guy: "It suits us fine the Microsoft and Sun fight about office application suites. We stay away from that. The reason we don't collaborate with Sun is that they're too small," said Pettersson.

It's ironic that people choose Open Source software as a way to escape Microsoft, yet here we have companies doing what they can to get Microsoft onto the Open Source field.

The reason most people want MS Office on Linux is because of the portability of the proprietary document formats. Despite the adoption of XML, I don't expect it to get any better.

Office first, Photoshop next? Disney has theirs, anyway. I look forward to the day these apps will be made native and no emulator will be required.

"The problem is that since OO isn't an MSO clone, there is a learning curve...and it's a bit steep."

This is the Problem. Think about retraining a workforce of say 1000 people to use OOo. The cost would be tremendous.

If MSO can be ran on Linux it will make a transition to the OS easier for a company to do.

Random thoughts: If MS has Office vX for Mac OSX how hard would it be to port it to Say KDE or Gnome?

In the future there will be MS Office for the 'nix OSes. I would venture a guess that it will either come with a MS X server and desktop or that MS will wait till Kde and Gnome have matured to a level that is on even ground with OSX and Windows. Then throw in support for one or the other and set office to run on the chosen one. Thus setting a standard desktop for business and casual user linux.

It makes it simple for MS just lie in wait, then swing their mighty Hammer when the time is right.

Linux for the average Joe will eventually be controlled in part by MS.

TasT wrote:
>Think about retraining a workforce of say 1000 people to use OOo.

Your point is well-made. Retraining a large--and likely mostly computer-illiterate workforce to use OOo is definitely prohibitive. It would be an IT nightmare. That's one thing I'll give MSO--it's fairly user friendly. OOo isn't always. Guess I got caught up in a little geek conceit. Migrating to Linux wouldn't even be such a big deal nowadays as changing the office software--especially with distributions like LindowsOS really doing a nice job of smoothing over Linux' rough edges.

It would be a business strategy for MS that would make sense. On the other hand, Gates' personal vendetta for Linux and Open Source may be as such that it will take him awhile to get around to it. It's really been something watching his and Michael Robertson's (LindowsOS) grudge match.

mrbiotech--

Then we shall, my friend, agree to disagree.

Ok 3D was lame...I'll give you that. I've not had graphics importing problems...and I have had to do it. As far as formatting goes, I've actually found some nice features there that MSO doesn't (or didn't--haven't used it since XP) have, like text shadowing. I'm not sure where you're looking in the program, but it's obviously not in the right place--there are great formatting options in OOo.

You wrote: "The learning curve for OpenOffice and the difficulties in integrating the components have exceeded my time limits for publications."
The learning curve is steep. That's what turned me off to OOo initially. What turned me on was ethics (you do the math) and an open file format. But I did learn this: don't use it on a deadline when you first start. Learn it when you have the time to experiment--most people (apparently including you) don't have that time. It can do many of the things Office can--sometimes you just have to know what you're looking for. And example: unformatted pasting. I missed this from MSOXP--it was a great and long overdue feature. I was disappointed that OOo couldn't do it...and then I discovered that if I long-clicked on the paste button, it could! And right there my second biggest hang-up with OOo was gone. That's just one example.

My biggest incentives to use it:
- it doesn't wrench itself into my OS like Office does. I'm still cleaning up from my Office installation...months later.
- it's free--I can't afford Office. And I'm not into stealing software anymore...changed my ways.
- a completely open file format. I like standards. OOo XML is great--no proprietary extensions.
- built in PDF export--slick!
- when MS decides to pull the rug on a file format or a program, I'm not effected.
- because it doesn't bury itself in the OS like MSO, I'm not as effected by security concerns.

I could probably think of others.

Bottom line: it's all in what you like. Once I got used to OOo, I liked it better. There are things I would change, but then there are things I'm sure you'd change about MSO, too, given the chance. Using OOo, I have a better chance at it than you do, though.

Blessings...
.:elem