Dell Chooses Ubuntu

[chubba]

Vista?

Goodness gracious me, I'm still using Win98 and IE5.5.

Sorry, was Xoggoth bragging about his shiny new OS, should have known you were a Windows 98 man. SE I hope.

[portseven]

I think if I did a Openoffice.org deployment again on a gig I would be pushing for moving to OpenDocument format wholesale.

Openoffice.org does a great job of opening and saving ms-office documents but they are still not 100% (thanks to MS for not opening their formats). I think it would just be safer to be 100% one way or the other.

And OpenDocument is looking to be a good bet in the long run anyway, what with its' ISO accreditation and more and more organizations adopting it.

[timh]

I'm necessarily on Windows, and I'm only a relatively lightweight 'office suite' user, but I've been on OpenOffice exclusively for about a year with few problems.

(Except for a dodgy copy of Outlook, for when clients absolutely insist on it.)

[Paddy]

OK. Now try a selection of documents taken from enterprise environments that use those features beyond trivial test cases.

And watch as your document falls to pieces, headers start resizing themselves for no apparent reason, text starts to word wrap within drawings due to differing font metrics (on Linux at least), and a series of other minor problems come up.

I seriously want to like OO and want it to work - it's the last piece in the full Linux desktop migration puzzle for me - but at the same time I can't be playing around with software that might make me look stupid in front of clients.

The OO team have done a fantastic job in reverse-engineering Microsoft's binary Office formats and making open-source equivalents that are 99% compatible - but 99% just isn't good enough for me.

I do not doubt you but I have just opened several complex Word document in OO and they are fine. There will always be some problems in translation but when WordPerfect was king, Microsoft has similar quirks with compatibility.

There are millions of unlicensed versions of MS Office used not just by intervals but also by companies. OO is going to be an easy get-out solution for them.

I have found that OO seems to be the standard now in hotels offering Internet workstations in the lobby.

[chicane]

B0L0CKS, I’m using Office 2003 and Open Office and I have just tested the above, both works and can be opened by either application.

If you use open office save it in MS Word format if you want to open it up in Word. No problems.

OK. Now try a selection of documents taken from enterprise environments that use those features beyond trivial test cases.

And watch as your document falls to pieces, headers start resizing themselves for no apparent reason, text starts to word wrap within drawings due to differing font metrics (on Linux at least), and a series of other minor problems come up.

I seriously want to like OO and want it to work - it's the last piece in the full Linux desktop migration puzzle for me - but at the same time I can't be playing around with software that might make me look stupid in front of clients.

The OO team have done a fantastic job in reverse-engineering Microsoft's binary Office formats and making open-source equivalents that are 99% compatible - but 99% just isn't good enough for me.

[Paddy]

So will Firefox, but they still won't be able to find the blue 'e' so that they can browse the web.

And OpenOffice, despite being a valiant effort, is a long distance from having an acceptable level of compatibility with any Word features that are remotely exotic (headers/footers, TOCs and drawings to name a few).

But that's a different discussion.

B0L0CKS, I’m using Office 2003 and Open Office and I have just tested the above, both works and can be opened by either application.

If you use open office save it in MS Word format if you want to open it up in Word. No problems.

[chubba]

Well yes, the only reason Dell chose to do this was their suggestion site was plastered on every linux fan site and user group out there to get people to suggest shipping boxes with Linux pre-installed. That and the news about refunding punters who did not want XP pre-installed - and they did refund a few so there should be a licencing cost to be saved on the Linux machines.

Will be pointless them offering Ubuntu without a saving IMO as I would (if I were predisposed to buyng machines from Dell) buy the Windows one and demand the refund on the licence as it would be surplus to requirements.

See how this pans out! Probably a load of pants like you suggest though...

[chicane]

Unless the price difference is enough (£100 or so would be nice)

Don't hold your breath for any discount - the big MS moves in mysterious ways. Indeed, don't be surprised if the Ubuntu option is in fact more expensive. I suspect this is a shallow PR move by Dell to pander to the OSS crowd more than a genuine change in direction.

[chubba]

Ah.

Thankyou.

That's what it's for...

We all know you use vista Zeity so don't tey and look like a cool Linux user here

Did not know Ubuntu was now using the FF logo - am still on 6.06 here as cannot be arsed to upgrade.

If installing for a parent or other technologically chanllenged person could always make an IE icon and shove this on the toolbar I guess.

Still, with Firefox at over 30% now* not everyone is brainwashed that the blue e means the internet anymore I guess.

End users learn pretty quickly though - how do all those mac users manage with no blue e?

Also how many total n00bs are going to be ordering a PC with Ubuntu rather than Windows at the minute? Unless the price difference is enough (£100 or so would be nice) then will they be tempted by Linux? It does work out of the box though and I think it is a pretty good O/S for first time and low level users.

* Source - Browser Stats

[chicane]

But nowadays on Ubuntu it's a blue sphere with a dead orange fox wrapped around it. What will those seeking the Blue 'e' make of that?

[chubba]

lol - sorry, was not thinking too clearly last night.

For most home users who bang out the odd letter I reckon OpenOffice is cool. And the symbol for the internet being a big world shjould not be too hard to understand.

[chicane]

So will Firefox, but they still won't be able to find the blue 'e' so that they can browse the web.

And OpenOffice, despite being a valiant effort, is a long distance from having an acceptable level of compatibility with any Word features that are remotely exotic (headers/footers, TOCs and drawings to name a few).

But that's a different discussion.

[chubba]

Why would they do that? OpenOffice will probably already be installed...

[chicane]

I look forward to hearing about the onslaught of inbound calls to their Indian call centre from people who can't work out how to install Microsoft Word.

[portseven]

I see Dell have chosen Ubuntu as the Linux they will offer pre-loaded on PC's

http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/07/05/01/1353237.shtml