I’ve been using OpenOffice.org only for probably more than three years now. It was my second step and maybe even final step towards Linux platform. It fits my needs and I regularly install it on computers I administer (relatives and friends, some customers). However it can be get pretty ugly when they fall into the MS Office territory of their friends computers…
Example A: Friends computer had big performance issues because Windows caching on an old hard drive (you could hear it all over the house, they told me) and it was crashing. I put a new HD in the box, but couldn’t install Windows because of unexplainable compatibility issues.
Because my friend needed computer very soon I installed Ubuntu as a temporary solution. Trouble began to arise when she was exchanging spreadsheet files with a client. First one was obvious one (eventhough I set OO.org to save in MS formats by default) – she sent the client ods file, but we solved that easily with saving the file in xls.
A bigger workaround was needed when the client wanted to edit graphs in OO.org created xls – they were pictures, not graphs that could be edited. So I sent the client link to download OO.org and told my friend to send the spreadsheet in ods.
Example B: My best friend rolled back to pirated MS Office after using OpenOffice.org for a couple of years. Reason – garbled complex doc files.
It an uphill battle for interoperability that doesn’t seem it will ever get won. It isn’t about OO.org vs. MS Office as much it is about having choice and peace of mind. In Example A my friend doesn’t know much about different formats, in Example B he does, but doesn’t seem to care about that much. Giving someone OO.org is also giving him/her a lesson about different formats. While I consider this good, I have a feeling that common users actually don’t want to be exposed to this knowledge, or shall we say truth.
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