Why Linux users need OpenOffice
Source: News Forge
I have had a love/hate relationship with StarOffice 5.2 since it first came out. I've used it successfully to open, read, and modify files created with Microsoft Office, but for little else, because it was a bloated, often irritating program that tried to do too much and didn't do it all well. OpenOffice does just about everything StarOffice ever did, but it has lost most of StarOffice's irritating features. It is as usable an "Office" package as you'll find in any operating system, and you sure can't beat the $0.00 price.
As a writer, I am often forced to deal with publishers who are absolutely, irretrievably locked into Windows and MS Office for the foreseeable future. Even when their Windows computers have just been infected with viruses or have crashed for the umpteenth time in the last month, when I suggest switching to Linux and StarOffice, they act as if I am suggesting moving to Mars to get away from rush hour traffic or something similarly bizarre. For many in the publishing business, MS Office has become as much a part of life as breathing. And because their employers provide their software, they don't worry about cost. MS Office is a fact of life for them, like breathing or car insurance, and the idea of giving it up is simply so far outside of their imaginations that anyone who suggests it is obviously a loon.
But even loons must eat. And this means we must be able to deal with "normal" people who do their work in MS proprietary formats despite the many reasons they shouldn't do this. Hence, my dependance on StarOffice or a similar program may be co-dependance, but it is a fact of life nonetheless.
