Let's address the ad-hominem first. It is a fine tactic, one I personally
am very fond of. In the case of Israelis, it is often the best and - alas -
the only tactic. So - good job, Peter.
Uhh, I've been in this country too long I think. Or I know the locals
too well. Or both.
As to Uri's concern - yes, you are right - you need to interoperate. Your
only modus operandi is "education" - educate your correspondents about
using what can be described as a RCD (Reasonable Common Denominator).
OpenOffice can and does interoperate with MS Office to a reasonable degree.
Or - rather - vice versa. We are promised a much better level of
interoperability once OO2 hits the streets in earnest (though I am not too
optimistic).
I do not agree here. You do not 'educate' correspondents. imho you have
to match them as a client and/or service provider or peer as much as
possible.
Let's ask this differently:
- assume 2 people who do not know each other send each other .doc documents
- assume the 2 cannot tell each other to 'upgrade' or whatever
- one sends another a price list/form with tick boxes to choose what is
to be purchased and how to pay
- the answer comes back with the table misformatted and impossible to read
- the procedure is repeated via fax, this time the document goes across smoothly
- the 'paperless office' works perfectly at about $10/day/computer
installed (fax and phone costs and time not counted)
Sounds impossible ? This is what happens all the time in business. If
the 1st person would have sent a plain text file it would have gone
through because the 2nd would have been able to open and edit it no
matter what. No OO was involved here.
Same for using an open standard document for interchange.
Wrt O/OO, OO is a viable option now and it causes *less* incompatibility
than O/O between versions, in my experience. Ymmv.
Peter
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