Hi :) Hopefully it's the range of different products that have a large overlap for most of the functionality people genuinely use.
Each Suite has a niche market and allows people to switch fairly easily between different Suites. For example a document created in Google-docs using Odt format should be easy to modify in LO. The problems arise when sharing with MSO or between people using different versions of MSO. Google docs is excellent if you need to collaborate through The Cloud but where i'm working at the moment they are all on one site and that has amazingly bad internet connection. Very low bandwidth. Not quite as bad as the worst Wireless or Dial-up but still pretty awful. So, Cloud would seem to be a bad choice for the company where i am at the moment. I think a lot of people are likely to be in similar position for a long time so although The Cloud is brilliant for many it's not really suitable for everyone. It's great to have the option to use either using the same format with hardly any troubles with compatibility. MSO never really delivers that despite it's promises and despite the mainstream-public's perception. Regards from Tom :) --- On Wed, 22/8/12, Ian Lynch <[email protected]> wrote: From: Ian Lynch <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [libreoffice-marketing] SoftMaker Office To: "Jay Lozier" <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected] Date: Wednesday, 22 August, 2012, 11:28 On 21 August 2012 16:31, Jay Lozier <[email protected]> wrote: > The real question is whether SO (or LO) is adequate MSO replacement for most > users. My experience is for most users the answer is yes; most users only > use a part of the available features. Then the issue is whether a > proprietary, commercial package (SO) is better than LO. Technically, I > believe LO is better and I do not find most commercial software support all > that good (I have not checked SO's support). But others may have different > opinions and comfort levels between proprietary and FOSS software. > > IMHO, the real marketing issue for most users is that MS has convinced them > that there is only office suite that can be used. I think that is weakening. However it seems unclear whether AOO/LO are the main reason. There is some evidence that Google Docs is becoming the most influential as work migrates to the web - hence MS and 365 Office. You rightly point out that for most people the features in MSO are complete overkill but that could be said of most desktop office suites. We are using GoogleDocs more and more because we need to share documents with many other people around the world and that feature is more valuable than obscure features. We use LO/AOO in specific cases eg to provide a pdf to publish a book but for most day to day things Google Docs integrated with hangouts and gmail etc is much the best solution. So I see the biggest challenge for all desktop office suites as a gradually eroding user base as more and more people migrate to the web for their productivity tools. Of course this is going to take years and there might always be a specialist desktop market but then development takes years so it is not going to be easy to change track. > -- > Jay Lozier > [email protected] > > > -- > Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to [email protected] > Problems? > http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ > Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette > List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/marketing/ > All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be > deleted > -- Ian Ofqual Accredited IT Qualifications (The Schools ITQ) www.theINGOTs.org +44 (0)1827 305940 The Learning Machine Limited, Reg Office, 36 Ashby Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79 8AQ. Reg No: 05560797, Registered in England and Wales. -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to [email protected] Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/marketing/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to [email protected] Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/marketing/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
