Why are XP Users Not Flocking to Linux?
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@Dashrender said:
We simply tried to go to Open or Libre Office and that as a huge no go!
What didn't they like about it?
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The formatting from all of our old documents was very askew.
It was decided that if our internal documents were going to look this bad, how would documents from the outside world look?
Keep in mind this was 6 years ago. Open/Libre Office might be a lot better today.
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@Dashrender said:
The formatting from all of our old documents was very askew.
It was decided that if our internal documents were going to look this bad, how would documents from the outside world look?
Keep in mind this was 6 years ago. Open/Libre Office might be a lot better today.
Oh, six years ago. Yeah, things were a lot different then. You should do some modern tests.
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I had the discussion with the boss a month or so ago... she didn't want to have to deal with any type of conversion issues at this point. In not so many words, even though she wants to reduce the budget, she told me to drop it.
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My boss cringes if I mention to him upgrading his Office suite above 2003.. he only uses Excel 2003.
Although cheaper alternatives for the company as a whole he will entertain just not his stuff. Some people just dislike change, especially if it effects them.
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@Seth-Cooper said:
My boss cringes if I mention to him upgrading his Office suite above 2003.. he only uses Excel 2003.
Although cheaper alternatives for the company as a whole he will entertain just not his stuff. Some people just dislike change, especially if it effects them.
I wonder at what point Excel 2003 won't run any more? Probably never really, because you could always virtualize a Windows 7 machine with Office 2003 on it.
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Office 2003 will run on Linux with Wine or Crossover.
Office 2003 to OpenOffice is a pretty minor transition.
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As someone from the business side of things that did try to move from Windows 7 to Linux, I can understand the hesitation. If you are not computer savvy, you are not going to know how to find things in Linux. If you only ever used the ribbon in MS office, you will not be easily able to find all of the customization tools in Libre office. These systems are not as user friendly as tech people would like to think
Sorry guys.There is a learning curve, and if you have your average users in that environment it will cause major headaches when the rest of the world does operate in Windows.
As a tech person I was able to make the move. It was annoying and frustrating at times, and that every document was reformatted, and that when I sent a document out to an MS office person it they had format issues nothing looked the same on my machine as it did for someone else no matter how I saved it. It was annoying to figure out how to install something (didn't take me long to figure it out, but wasn't intuitive to me).
In order to make this type of move LOTS of other businesses would need to. Otherwise there are so many little annoying issues that just get in the way of being productive. Nothing is horrible and you would need to weigh out price versus the annoyances, but they are there and that needs to be considered.
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@Minion-Queen said:
It was annoying and frustrating at times, and that every document was reformatted, and that when I sent a document out to an MS office person it they had format issues nothing looked the same on my machine as it did for someone else no matter how I saved it. It was annoying to figure out how to install something (didn't take me long to figure it out, but wasn't intuitive to me).
Hmm.. you did this 'test' less than a year ago (what 6 months ago?) and you still had formatting issues - lol... that is why we didn't move forward 6 years ago with Open/Libre... can't believe it's still and issue. and you've just saved me from even wasting my time trying it out.
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We tried 4 years ago for a client that was looking to save money. After months of formatting issues with docs and spreadsheets (shared with users using Office) they asked how much do I have to spend to change back to MS and when can it be done.
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It's not an open format and it changes with each release. Copying the formatting is extremely challenging.
Internally you can just avoid it and use PDF for interchange with other companies.
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@scottalanmiller said:
It's not an open format and it changes with each release. Copying the formatting is extremely challenging.
Internally you can just avoid it and use PDF for interchange with other companies.
I suppose that works as long as you're not editing a document together with them.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
It's not an open format and it changes with each release. Copying the formatting is extremely challenging.
Internally you can just avoid it and use PDF for interchange with other companies.
I suppose that works as long as you're not editing a document together with them.
Yes, Word is a document collaboration / editing format. PDF is a sharing / distribution format. It's rare that you do document editing with external companies. It happens, but it is rare. If you do that, you always have problems because there are several formats out there and really the best one for cross platform compatibility is OpenDoc, not Word, as Word does OpenDoc just fine as does OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Calligra and others.
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I've tried to move to Linux, but I can't. The tools that I need to do my job in an efficient manner aren't present on Linux. In order to run them, I'd need to dink around with wine or use a VM. What's the point of that? With Windows, I can just install the applications and go, no dinking needed. If I'm running a VM for my previous OS for certain applications, why did I bother moving OSes in the first place? It only adds complexity.
Many companies use XP for particular applications that may not be compatible with newer versions of Windows. If there's a compatibility issue with newer versions of Windows, it's more than likely that the application doesn't have a native Linux version.
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@Nara said:
I've tried to move to Linux, but I can't. The tools that I need to do my job in an efficient manner aren't present on Linux. In order to run them, I'd need to dink around with wine or use a VM.
Is that because you are supporting Windows?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Nara said:
I've tried to move to Linux, but I can't. The tools that I need to do my job in an efficient manner aren't present on Linux. In order to run them, I'd need to dink around with wine or use a VM.
Is that because you are supporting Windows?
I'm supporting vSphere. Sure, vCenter uses a web interface, but until you get vCenter up and running, you need Windows. I'm also an Outlook user. So far, I haven't found an email client that has the level of functionality and smooth operation that Outlook does. I need something that'll support Outlook Anywhere, sync across multiple computers, have offline and online access, follow-ups with date-based reminders, access shared calendars, and have message rules. I'm also an OneNote user. There's nothing like it that has a native Linux application.
Beyond that, I do support Windows environments. In many cases, LOB applications and/or job-specific applications don't support Linux. There are some that do (and I've worked with a couple), but when deciding on major applications, function comes before platform. The product that has the most beneficial use for the company is the best choice.
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Even using Exchange I've started to prefer OWA over Outlook 2013. Smoother, more reliable operations.
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@Nara said:
In many cases, LOB applications and/or job-specific applications don't support Linux. There are some that do (and I've worked with a couple), but when deciding on major applications, function comes before platform.Agreed, but my findings have been that it is extremely rare today to find truly good quality software that is Windows only. More likely it is a poor choice that just isn't realized until it is too late. Windows-only apps should be a red flag. There are great Windows-only apps, but they are pretty rare. And they tend to be the same ones that only support legacy Windows. The factors that make them not support Linux, BSD and Solaris are the same ones that block them from supporting modern Windows much of the time. What seems like a good program today often turns into the unsupported quagmire of tomorrow.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Even using Exchange I've started to prefer OWA over Outlook 2013. Smoother, more reliable operations.
I can't stand OWA. It isn't as feature-rich, and isn't available offline. It also doesn't support application plugins, such as CRM.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Nara said:
In many cases, LOB applications and/or job-specific applications don't support Linux. There are some that do (and I've worked with a couple), but when deciding on major applications, function comes before platform.Agreed, but my findings have been that it is extremely rare today to find truly good quality software that is Windows only. More likely it is a poor choice that just isn't realized until it is too late. Windows-only apps should be a red flag. There are great Windows-only apps, but they are pretty rare. And they tend to be the same ones that only support legacy Windows. The factors that make them not support Linux, BSD and Solaris are the same ones that block them from supporting modern Windows much of the time. What seems like a good program today often turns into the unsupported quagmire of tomorrow.
Do you have some examples of mainstream business apps that are available for both platforms that have native clients that don't require a platform like Java in order to run?
