OT: Massachusetts Verdict: MS Office Formats Out

[Robin Laing]

Guy Fraser wrote:
> On Mon, 2005-03-10 at 11:58 -0600, Robin Laing wrote:
> 
    <snip>

> 
> We could only wish to have management that could understand these
> issues. I know from experience, that management bought the MSFT
> propaganda, and ignored what the IT department proposed. I am the only
> person left in the office that is not using MS Office. The only thing
> that allows me to keep a Linux workstation is that I am the senior
> network administrator. As long as I export my documents in Excel or Word
> formats management doesn't care. I just don't make ripples anymore,
> because last time I brought it up I was almost forced to switch to
> windows. I saved myself using the, catastrophic virus vulnerability
> scenario, where all the windows machines could crash, but we would still
> have one workstation to maintain the system. I am not sure if they
> bought it or just gave in, but my Linux machine survived that gauntlet.
> 
> 

We are lucky here in the fact that the IS people still use Solaris on 
many machines.  We have Linux clusters that have replaced Alpha's and 
many people are using Linux for development.  :)

We still have the MS document issue but many are using LaTex or OOo 
because of formatting problems and issues with MS office.  It is not a 
pleasant experience hearing someone scream that the paper they need in 
20 minutes just got reformatted automatically by MS Office as they 
deleted one line.

Heck, I worked on a macro application that the "Head Office" wanted 
tested and it crashed terribly every time I tried to use it on an XP 
machine.  I spent an hour on the phone with one of the development 
teams and they even had to admit that they were seeing more Linux, 
LaTex and OOo usage.  We even have Corporate LaTex templates now.

And of course the virus issue is always fun as this took down the 
exchange server for many days.  Of course all the sendmail servers 
kept working.   Unfortunately, the exchange servers are now the major 
gateway.

Of course we now have contracts written that state software or 
hardware will be able to run and support Linux.

We have the issue of importing old documents and data files that are 
in proprietor file formats from past work.  It isn't much fun.

-- 
Robin Laing