Well to be fair, I raised three points that seemed to me were the arguments of MS feature-wise.
Other arguments are listed, and my suggestion was to create a new wiki page where we could compare (side-by-side) LO and MSO. Summary of arguments from MS against LO *Arguments about $$* - Total costs: Business impact; like software issues, integration, incompatibility, run-time errors, downtime, unreliable support and security vulnerability. - Total benefit: Such as reliable supports, updates, accessibility, and security. - Integration cost: The cost associated when you decide to use a different software platform. - Management: Can it be easily managed? Large companies tend to have this issue because they don’t have a unified system. - Deployment costs: Can it handle corporate size business productivity? In addition to the compromise or extra benefits of software alternatives. - OpenOffice/LibreOffice does not provide the same depth of functionality as Microsoft Office as a result do not meet the needs of some end users. This will force your organization to manage multiple software suites potentially increasing IT costs. - When running a mixed software environment you are also running the risk of interoperability issues which could further increase IT and helpdesk costs, inhibit productivity, and generate end users frustration. - Additional factors that could create higher costs include integration with your existing systems and applications like ERP and content management systems and software updates. - *LibreOffice*/OpenOffice *does not allow for incremental software updates. *Instead it requires a complete uninstall and reinstall every time you need to update the software. *Arguments more about features* - Office drives increasing business value through innovations that span basic functionality, like copy and paste, to advanced features like business intelligence. - LibreOffice/OpenOffice does not deliver a complete productivity suite. Critical components like email and calendaring are absent, not to mention equivalent software to Publisher, OneNote, Business Contact Manager and SharePoint Workspace. - LibreOffice / OpenOffice also lack some commonly used components, for instance; they do not ship with commonly used functionality like user friendly ribbons, clipart, SmartArt or Pivot Charts. - Organizations may have to fill these application gaps with product extensions, additional software or customizations adding to cost and complexity. *Arguments about collaboration* - Collaboration technology should facilitate ease of sharing, and trust in the fidelity of information shared. To facilitate collaboration, Office 2010 has many new features including co-authoring, integration with the Microsoft Unified Communications technologies in addition to the new online companion applications, the Office Web Applications. - People using OpenOffice/LibreOffice are limited to using disparate email and document repositories to share and edit documents one person at a time. To take advantage of advanced collaboration technologies will require additional software and possibly more customization. In addition to sharing documents, information formatting integrity is critical. - LibreOfice/OpenOffice can read and output many file types, however vital information like formatting structures, calculations, layout, and macros may not be preserved when sharing with non OpenOffice/LibreOffice users. - Whether you have a mixed group of users or plan to share documents with people outside of your organization you may not be able to trust that people receive the document with the intended content and formatting. *Security/Sensitive information* - OpenOffice/LibreOffice are limited to only password protecting files. Although password protected documents can be effective, they do not ensure security and may cause additional complexity. - Advantage and also weakness of OpenOffice/LibreOffice for being an open source software means that many users have the ability to alter the state of the software by integrating their own design, which could lead to security vulnerability issue. - Microsoft Office provides a robust set of features for securing documents that reduces the risk and cumbersomeness of password only protection. - Information Rights Management (IRM) allows individuals and administrators to specify permissions to documents, workbooks, and presentations. This helps prevent sensitive information from being printed, forwarded, or copied by unauthorized people. After permission for a file has been restricted using IRM, the access and usage restrictions are enforced no matter where the information is. *Arguments about "Cloud"* - OpenOffice/LibreOffice does not provide any other deployment option besides the desktop. - Microsoft provides a seamless experience across the PC, phone, and browser. *Future-looking arguments* - OpenOffice/LibreOffice may be limited in providing the next generation of productivity, cloud computing, lacking the ecosystem of enabling server and consumer collaboration technologies like SharePoint and SkyDrive. - Choosing Microsoft Office will help ensure that you can take advantage of the next generation of productivity software. Is it possible to add this to a wiki or something please. We can work on it collaboratively :) Cheers, Immanuel -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to [email protected] Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/us/marketing/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
