OOo vs MS Office

[jmadero]

I've been reading a few forums complaining about how OOo isn't really innovative with the GUI and that MS Office (especially with 2007 release) looks much cleaner and is easier to use with shortcuts and what not.

So, what do you all think?

[Dann]

I very rarely use an office suite, and when I do I use OO. It hasn't left me wanting anything. I've used Word at work and stuff like that, I don't see a huge difference. I might have a different story if I used them every day on a professional level, though. But for the few times a month I use spread sheets and write documents, no sleek interface is going to make me drop down a couple hundred dollars.

[elija]

I have used the new office ribbon interface and I hate it. The old way wasn't broken so they broke it. I truly hope that open source software doesn't copy that disaster!

[dalinux_n00bie]

Honestly, who cares about how it looks? As long as it is intuitive enought to not need a manuel, and because it is open source, it works for me. Sure I do have MS office on my windoze partition, but I got it for free from my school, so I don't complain.

What ever runs your software.

[jmadero]

I personally don't think they should copy the new Windows interface but I wish they would come up with something creative of their own....I think that MS might stop complaining so much about patent infringements if they designed something new, that looks unique but still functions really well

[bigtomrodney]

I personally don't think they should copy the new Windows interface but I wish they would come up with something creative of their own

I'd agree with this for pretty much every other program out there, but with MS Office being so ingrained into the mindset of so many it's a big risk. It already takes all sort of persuasion to get home users to accept that they don't need Microsoft Office but just an office suite, so imagine the resistance in the enterprise scenario where you'd have to deal with training issues. As it is I think most users can't tell the difference between Powerpoint and Word, so a different interface might be signing their own death warrant outside the geek circles.

[jmadero]

yeah i can see the point in that...I wish that they could make an option...now that the general GUI is set, they could maybe start asking open source communities to do "mock ups" of what they'd like to see. Then maybe there could just be an option inside of OOo that was for the new interface....

I personally think there are quite a few areas where the GUI could look better without confusing people. But perhaps I'm asking too much, I have used OOo for everything other than Access for quite a few years so I'm not too afraid to get used to a new "prettier" GUI

[L4Linux]

Both suites have a gazillion functions that not even their developers know how to use, I guess...
What I don't like about MS-Office is that it is incompatible with ... itself!!!
Colleagues in work have come to me a few times because MS-Office ruined their documents (from 100 pages, the docs turned to 300. Got full of page brakes for unknown reason...)
OpenOffice managed to open the MS-Office created files OK
+ PDF export/import, ooxml files import without a plugin that Office 2003 needs, so I think OpenOffice suits me better.
I hope that when and if IBM aquires SUN, OpenOffice will get more developers and improve even more.
And a bit more competition from KOffice 2 would not be bad at all, either.

[bigtomrodney]

I hope that when and if IBM aquires SUN, OpenOffice will get more developers and improve even more.

Unfortunately that's looking less likely. I hope it's just posturing as I'd like to see IBM owning Sun.

Slashdot | IBM Withdraws $7B Offer For Sun Microsystems, Says NYT

[coopstah13]

For me, the GUI is fine, but OO still lacks functionality that I require. One thing is outlook, in an enterprise environment you can't get around the need for exchange client. Evolution doesn't work well with it. The notes features in OO are still quirky as well.