Re: [tdf-discuss] Re: End of Life support for MSO 2003 countdown ?

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On 4/22/13 10:06 AM, Pedro wrote:

> Regarding your subject, I think that LibreOffice could target those users
> but there are two obstacles: the file conversion is not perfect AND (most
> important) those users are already too used to MS Office. It is easier to
> convince new users to work with a different product than to teach new tricks
> to "old dogs".

This does not reflect the reality, where most LibreOffice (and
OpenOffice) users are coming from the Microsoft field, because they are
fed up with license costs or simply looking for an alternative (this is
the most frequent approach).

The end of life for MS Office 2003 is a significant problem for
companies, but not for individuals. Targeting companies is definitely
more difficult than targeting individuals, but as far as I know most of
them are already trying to manage the problem - at least in Europe - and
many of them are looking at migrating to free software.

TDF has published a white paper about migrating from Microsoft Office to
LibreOffice, which is being translated in several languages. We can use
such a document to educate companies and we can even make a version
targeted to MS Office 2003 users.

The fact that the file conversion is not perfect is not going to change.
It will never be perfect, because Microsoft is deliberatedly creating
formats which are impossible to emulate in order to reduce the
interoperability (interoperability is the death of lock in, and lock in
is the cornerstone of Microsoft business model).

On the other hand, placing a counter on our website would not reach the
potential target of MS Office 2003 users, unless they already know free
software and LibreOffice (which would put them in a different group).

We should make some hard noise in the Windows environment, using social
media and traditional media. Let's brainstorm about a specific message
for this target group.

-- 
Italo Vignoli - italo.vignoli@gmail.com
mob +39.348.5653829 - VoIP 5316436@messagenet.it
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