Open Office vs. MS Office – the Other Key to Windows/Linux Transition – Jamie’s Random Musings on Video IM – J.A. Watson’s Blog at ZDNet.co.uk Community

Open Office vs. MS Office – the Other Key to Windows/Linux Transition

Posted by J.A. Watson

As I have been going around alternately prodding my friends and family to try Linux, or asking them if they thought it would be possible, one thing I have heard repeatedly is that a lot of people use Microsoft Office and are concerned about their Office documents on Linux. I should also mention that a lot of them are very angry that Microsoft has changed the default document format in Office 2007 (again), such that it is incompatible with previous Office versions. Yes, of course, I know there are converters and such, but it’s just one more thing for users to have to worry about – and in general they aren’t confronted with it, or sometimes even aware of it, until they send a critical document to a colleague and discover that the colleague can’t open it…