Comments on: Overwhelm their Fears with Open Source

By: Dan Walters

Dan Walters — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:35:30 +0000

I work within IT and I have to admit that open source has enabled me to carry out my job more professionally, with less expense, and more efficiently.

I use thunderbird for my emailing, filezilla for ftp, gimp for image manipulation, firefox for browsing and linux on my servers. - All open source, and all the best solutions to meet my requirements.

Although I love Microsoft Discussions - which normally solve any problem I have with Microsoft products, I find that the open source world is more friendly and more willing to help others when there is an issue.

I’ve also got open office installed and use it whenever I can (I rarely word process) however I’ve got to admit, if I want to do a mail merge or need to work on a database for a client, I do tend to use Excel and Access - Why? - I have no idea, maybe because it’s what I been brought up with, and know like the back of my hand. - or maybe I’m just scared of change. Either way, I really do believe that open source is the way forward, and although I don’t normally like Dell products, I have to congratulate them on being one of the first IT providers to offer Linux as a preinstall on many of it’s laptops.

By: Root

Root — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:35:33 +0000

I found the first comment really interesting. Many users frame their experience and choice in terms of an *alternative* to MS. But in that mind set they are almost bound to be disappointed. OO may not be quite there. But so what? The reasons for using open source to those of us who use it are compelling. And we are not on any kind of crusade. We use it because it is better than all the alternatives. We are geeks. We know about this stuff. That is why we use it. IMHO the only thing keeping M$ afloat is the entrenched coroporate mindset / inertia / skill sets of staff including admins. By any rational criteria M$ would have sunk long ago. And there days are probably now numbered I would think. The only combo / platform that makes sense to me is linux terminals and Google docs.

By: Martin

Martin — Sun, 25 May 2008 17:54:42 +0000

I recently started using open source software and saw that it has much better quality then I thought about it before and sometimes it’s even better then paid one’s

By: Simonne of ezmoneyon.net

Simonne of ezmoneyon.net — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:37:17 +0000

Open source was the greatest discovery I’ve had in the latest years. I’ve started blogging on Blogger, but I got my own domain after about two weeks, when I realized that other people can do with their sites some things which were not accessible to me. And both domains and hosting are so cheap these days, that I think most of the people can afford to publish on their own domain, because the biggest expense, which would have been the software, is now free, thanks to open source.

Also due to open source, Firefox is now 10 years ahead competitors.

By: Daniel Lackey

Daniel Lackey — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:01:24 +0000

@Ling
I would love to be able to use Open Office full time. I would love to not have to let my sister use my Office install every time her computer gets screwed up (thanks to Geek Squad for that fiasco…). But right now you are right; OO is just not fully up to speed. It is SOOOO close too.

But I do not see how dominance of one software suite prevents the open source alternatives from becoming the more popular option. Look at Firefox. It is gaining market share pretty well, and not just amongst the “geek” class of computer users. It is the better alternative and just so happens to be open source.

So maybe it is a matter of project focus evolution. If you are intent on making a set of software to rival Office, the priorities should obviously be to be better than Office first, be open source second. If you can achieve goal number one, then surely you can achieve goal number two.

“However people are not that blind about what is happening around them.” I think that is the biggest assumption that open source advocates have that just simply isn’t true. Ask a random person on the street if they know about Open Office, or what the GPL is, or what open source is. Most folks don’t know or don’t care. Raising that knowledge out of ingorance and apathy needs to be a priority first and foremost.

By: Ivailo

Ivailo — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 10:53:39 +0000

I really believe that soon OpenOffice will become at least equal to MS Office in terms of popularity. The only thing that keeps Microsoft’s product alive is that people are creatures of habit. However people are not that blind about what is happening around them.

About the sacrifice of a little productivity I disagree because time is precious and if that time costs you way more than the prise of the MS Office suite, then you have to let go of the ideal world that you want so badly. Another thing is that using OpenOffice can mean that you can’t spare the money to buy MS Office. And if you are a businessman, you cannot afford your clients to get that impression.