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I'm a firm believer in the open source movement, whether it's for software and any other sort of creative endeavour. Through the generousity of many people working together towards a shared vision some great achievements have been made. Just look at projects such as Moodle, Wordpress, and most of the software that underpins the internet.
When starting Wyver Solutions, my aim was to build it as much as possible on open-source principles - using open-source software, and being generous in our own approach to content and ideas. As well as keeping costs down, it also fits in with our values.
But, at the same time, you have to be pragmatic. If using open-source software means that you will need to spend too much time learning new ways of working, or it means that you can't communicate with the rest of the world easily, then it's time to change. I made that decision years ago when I chose to go down the Mac OS route for operating systems, and now I'm having to make that decision for office software.
Every organisation needs to have a suite of business communication software (ie. word processor, presentations and spreadsheets). Up to now, I've been working happily in OpenOffice. That's fine if you are the only person involved, and the output is going to be a PDF.
But as soon as you need to start sharing documents and presentations, with complex formatting, with other people who use other software (ie. MS Office), then it becomes time to fall into line and adopt what has become (through weight of numbers rather than any collective decision) the de facto standard.
It came to a head when I spent hours on an OpenOffice Writer document that just wouldn't display correctly when converted to the Word .doc format. It would have been fine if I'd just been publishing a PDF, or working with someone who used a application that had adopted the OASIS Open Document Format (a worldwide standard). But, in most of the organisations I'm working with, MS Office (and the Microsoft interpretation of ODF) has become the standard way of working.
So, it's time to get out the cash. Not because the software does anything better, but because, if I want to work with other people I need to fall into line.
3 comments
I see what you mean, but I disagree. I had a similar set of experiences. But every time I had a format problem with a complex document coming from someone else, it was NOT due to the complexity, it was due tobad use of the technology. People that really care about sharing and cooperating invest some time in learning how to format documents in a careful way. It is always possible to do it properly, so I see this issue at the opposite end, that of the document preparation. And, as a trainer, I see a need to provide good skills to prepare portable documents as a primary one, and skills to read badly formatted documents as as secondary one.
I’d love to be able to agree with you Pedro. However, I’m finding that even the most carefully formatted documented (with proper use of styles etc) is having to be reworked every time it moves from OpenOffice to Word or back again.
Of course, the best long-term answer would be for everyone to use applications that support ODF … but the cost of the change for most people seems to be too great.
Made the move to MS office at home for the same reasons a little while back from open office.
I hear good things about libre office though and think it gets more investment these days that open office. Have you tried it?
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