Ontario Education ministry buys Star Office

[Marcus Brubaker]

On Fri, 2004-05-28 at 20:50, cbbrowne-HInyCGIudOg at public.gmane.org wrote:
> > Well, I am often surprized when I hear on a Linux list that it is good to
> > pay for software.
> > 
> > Isnt openOffice quite the same in functionality as starOffice? And even it
> > is not - could not students use it?
> 
> The thing that StarOffice comes with that OpenOffice.org does not is a
> rich set of "document templates."  That has some degree of, oh, call it
> "artistic merit."  And it is of some value.
> 

It also, I expect, comes with a level of support from Sun.  It also
likely comes with non-free fonts, maybe a clip-art gallery and probably
a few other bells and whistles.

> > But the ministry would not feel serious if they decided that openOffice can
> > be used on 10,000 computers across Ontario. It would look quite silly if all
> > that was going to be for free, wouldnt it?
> > 
> > Besides, I never loved these Java-based products, taking unneccessary
> > to much resources (CPU and RAM). Upgrading these 10,000 computers so
> > that they can be used effectively with either starOffice or openoffice
> > will cost much more than any licences.
> 
> Hm???  StarOffice and OpenOffice.org are written in C++, not Java.
> 
> They may represent bloated C++, but then you should accuse them of being
> crummy due to C++, not Java.

Indeed.  Although after experiencing how slow OO is, it's an
understandable mistake.  I'm moderately terrified to see how EI Office
is, being as it *is* written in Java.

Regards,
-- 
Marcus Brubaker <marcus.brubaker-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org>

--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml