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posted by martyb on Friday June 30 2017, @10:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the thank-you-captain-obvious dept.

Bryan Lunduke at Network World calls out what other mainstream media have been too timid, or bought out, to call out. He starts by pointing out that choosing Microsoft Windows for your organization should get you fired and that if you haven't already replaced Windows, across the board, you absolutely stink at your job.

There. Finally the topic is broached in mainstream media and a proper discussion can now start among decision makers who can arrange complete migrations to GNU/Linux, Chrome/Linux, one of the BSDs, or a combination of them.

As Microsoft security problems continue to escalate since even the pre-networked, MS-DOS days, managers and front-line grunts will find themselves increasingly culpable for selecting unviable software, such as Microsoft Windows. If they wish to pay big bucks for maintenance, there are plenty of companies around to participate in the money. Canonical, Red Hat, M:Tier are just a sampling.

[Ed. Note: I debated whether or not to run this story — in some respects it's just the Windows vs *nix argument all over again. Also, there are proprietary programs which are critical for certain industries which currently only run on Windows. On the other hand, gaining a mention like this in the more mainstream media, does that mean we are approaching an inflection point? Witness the increased displeasure with Windows 10's telemetry and the difficulty in completely blocking it. What programs do you use that are only available on Windows? What keeps you from moving to another OS? --martyb]


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  • (Score: 1) by ewk on Friday June 30 2017, @11:50AM (25 children)

    by ewk (5923) on Friday June 30 2017, @11:50AM (#533381)

    The wife and MS Office... :-)
    Only when LibreOffice or one of its cousins is 'layout-and-button-compatible' with MS Office (whatever version She is using at them moment), there will be a minimal chance in going FOSS in 'Casa EWK' :-)

    --
    I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday June 30 2017, @12:30PM (5 children)

    by kaszz (4211) on Friday June 30 2017, @12:30PM (#533393) Journal

    Update wife to LibreOffice?

    • (Score: 1) by ewk on Friday June 30 2017, @12:39PM (4 children)

      by ewk (5923) on Friday June 30 2017, @12:39PM (#533396)

      Maybe I did not explain it well enough... 'the wife and MS Office' has to be seen as one, indivisible unit :-)

      --
      I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
      • (Score: 3, Touché) by deimtee on Friday June 30 2017, @01:04PM (3 children)

        by deimtee (3272) on Friday June 30 2017, @01:04PM (#533403) Journal

        Update to Wife 2,0 ?

        --
        If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
        • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @01:19PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @01:19PM (#533408)

          2.0 sounds like your IQ

        • (Score: 1) by ewk on Friday June 30 2017, @01:39PM (1 child)

          by ewk (5923) on Friday June 30 2017, @01:39PM (#533419)

          Due to the lack of certainty regarding non-MS Office-compliance not an option I am willing to consider (at the moment :-) )

          --
          I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
          • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @05:07PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @05:07PM (#533557)

            The next Libreoffice convention [documentfoundation.org] is in October in Rome. Bring your A game.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @01:22PM (10 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @01:22PM (#533410)

    This.

    When I compiled our stats (league-wide girls' softball) using LibreOffice and saving to xlsx format, no one else could read them.

    • (Score: 1, Disagree) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 30 2017, @02:28PM (9 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 30 2017, @02:28PM (#533456) Journal

      So - you saved to the wrong format. Don't blame that on Libreoffice. I guess it's not terribly dumb to save to the wrong format a time or two. Hell, I've done it. But, if you're smart enough to post here, you're smart enough to master the learning curve. Next time, save to a format that you're sure everyone can read. PDF works good.

      https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/28031/what-formats-does-the-libre-office-41-support/ [libreoffice.org]

      • (Score: 1) by insanumingenium on Friday June 30 2017, @03:35PM (8 children)

        by insanumingenium (4824) on Friday June 30 2017, @03:35PM (#533497) Journal

        You trollin?

        PDF is a display format, the answer to file format compatibility isn't to use a display format.

        Seriously, do you also recommend that people should only do crosswords in ink because the ink is easier to read than pencil?

        • (Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 30 2017, @03:45PM

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 30 2017, @03:45PM (#533504) Journal

          Just tossed PDF out there to see who was paying attention, really.

        • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday June 30 2017, @07:14PM (2 children)

          by tangomargarine (667) on Friday June 30 2017, @07:14PM (#533630)

          Do these people need the ability to edit the file? If not, nothing is wrong with PDF.

          Otherwise saving to old-school .xls instead of .xlsx probably would've worked fine as long as you aren't using any of the new whiz-bang shiny features that I seriously doubt would be necessary for a table of straight-up numbers. Hell, MS Office even claims to support .ods these days, although I haven't tried that.

          --
          "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
          • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday June 30 2017, @09:58PM (1 child)

            Do these people need the ability to edit the file? If not, nothing is wrong with PDF.

            There is always something wrong with PDF. Any document I cannot edit and control the layout of pisses me off.

            --
            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
            • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @10:33PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @10:33PM (#533742)

              > Any document I cannot edit and control the layout of pisses me off.

              It's just for people like you that we deliver our engineering reports in pdf format! If you want the report to look different or say something else, go do the work and write your own damn report, don't mess with what we wrote.

        • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @07:31PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @07:31PM (#533638)

          I have never understood the need to use an editable format to distribute documents to be read.

          In fact, it seems counterintuitive.

          -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday June 30 2017, @10:00PM (2 children)

            I knew you had some sick views but this one takes the cake. Now especially, you have no clue what screen size, resolution, or glasses prescription the person reading your document is using. Making a one-size-fits-none document is an epic dick move.

            --
            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 01 2017, @02:17AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 01 2017, @02:17AM (#533797)

              Reader gives you plenty of accessibility options.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 01 2017, @03:26AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 01 2017, @03:26AM (#533809)

              Ever hear of HTML?
              I can't think of of a device/OS that doesn't come with an app that will render that stuff.
              Make the window as narrow as you want and it will adjust the presentation.

              -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by number6x on Friday June 30 2017, @02:04PM (5 children)

    by number6x (903) on Friday June 30 2017, @02:04PM (#533437)

    If a new version of MS office comes out, and all the buttons, ribbons and everything else work differently, does she have the same reaction?

    Switching from MS Office to Libre Office is no more work than switching from one version of MS Office to another.

    • (Score: 1) by ewk on Friday June 30 2017, @02:20PM (3 children)

      by ewk (5923) on Friday June 30 2017, @02:20PM (#533448)

      "If a new version of MS office comes out, and all the buttons, ribbons and everything else work differently, does she have the same reaction?"

      No, somehow that seems to be no problem... Because it's still MS Office.
      I don't even try to understand it anymore. :-) But, probably because of the various office jobs she had, those different version she worked with are 'close enough' to not cause any problems.
      Which can be said for 99% of the users of MS Office... they only use about 10% of the functionality.

      "Switching from MS Office to Libre Office is no more work than switching from one version of MS Office to another. "

      You know that, I know that...

      --
      I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday June 30 2017, @10:02PM (2 children)

        Go full on OSS geek on her and change the branding in the LibreOffice source next time MS updates Office. Then start a pool on how long it takes her to figure out she's not using a MS product.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 01 2017, @09:05AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 01 2017, @09:05AM (#533859)

          The first time she opens a Word doc.
          Libreoffice works okay for most of its goals. The one part where it fails hard is compatability with Microsoft's office suite. It's not that you cannot open files, the problem is that they don't look like how they were intended (both MSOffice -> LO and LO -> MSOffice). Kind of a death sentence for a WYSIWYG editor.

          This doesn't matter if you don't need to open the"other side"'s documents. Otherwise, why risk a switch?
          Why put in effort to get worse interaction with (basically) the rest of the world?

        • (Score: 3, Funny) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday July 02 2017, @12:44PM

          by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Sunday July 02 2017, @12:44PM (#534151)

          Go full on OSS geek on her and change the branding in the LibreOffice source next time MS updates Office. Then start a pool on how long it takes her to figure out she's not using a MS product.

          I was thinking something along similar lines, not nearly as deep though. I had a user that refused to switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox, despite a directive from corporate for everyone to do so. I simply changed the Firefox desktop icon on his PC from the Firefox standard to the big blue E. Next time I checked he was using Firefox and I never heard a complaint about it.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @07:34PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @07:34PM (#533639)

      Only Able to Use Windows? You're Fired [soylentnews.org]

      I really have to wonder about people with adaptability levels that are this low.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @02:22PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @02:22PM (#533449)

    Funny thing is that MS Office isn't button and layout compatible with MS Office.

    We are a lot of people who still cannot find our way around the stupid ribbon.

  • (Score: 1) by noneof_theabove on Friday June 30 2017, @03:58PM

    by noneof_theabove (6189) on Friday June 30 2017, @03:58PM (#533517)

    Evidently you & wife1.0 live under a big flat rock just above the bedrock [alludes to Flintstones].
    An exact replica of the POS Ribbon Bar is an instant law suit.
    And finally do your homework - LibreOffice has a Ribbon Bar called the Notebookbar.
    It not bad if your are addicted to getting less screen real estate with play-school eye candy. [learn all the shorts cut keys and how to manipulate them]
    Duck it [screw google] for enable notebookbar [also called Ribbon Interface].
    From howtogeek.com
    1) open tools > options
    2) goto LibreOffice > Advanced Section
    3) Check “Enable experimental features (may be unstable)” then click “OK.”
    4) Restart LibreOffice
    5) On Menu Bar click View > Toolbar Layout > Notebookbar
    6) this can be toggled at will.

    I have not been on MS Office since OpenOffice 0.6
    The only reason for using MSO is high level commands in Spreadsheets, that Libre has more functions but not the "rocket science" ones [did I hear a legal snake grumbling]