It's a niche product, doesn't and probably can't make enough money to support itself. Perhaps they will sell it to Mozilla, but I don't see any compelling business reason to keep it around except for the sole simple reason that it is a thorn in the side of Microsoft. come to think of it, given how much Ellison detests Gates and Ballmer et al, he might just sink millions into OpenOffice and make it work right and be a true competitor to MSOffice. I guess it depends on Ellison - will his hate of all things MS make him sink millions into OO and make it a true competitor to MSO, or will he head the bean counters and cut it lose?
It will be very interesting to see how that pans out. I rather like Open Office - it's quirky and kind of ugly, but it does work and its drawing tools are great for business graphics. but its presentation tool (competitor for PowerPoint) sucks even worse than PowerPoint, and PowerPoint is at an advanced stage of suckitude. That said, I hope Ellison sees the promise in Open Office and really runs with it. If he could make OpenOffice presentation better than Keynote, word processing better than Word, and spreadsheet better than Excel, I would pay real money for that.
It's a niche product, doesn't and probably can't make enough money to support itself.
Openoffice was sadly never any good. It was never even good enough for them to have leapfrogging MS Office as a goal, they just had to play catch-up from years behind.
Look how much better Excel 2007 was than the previous versions. (I don't know what version exactly had the tremendous UI change). This looked like a new product, the usability was greatly enhanced. Any other spreadsheet manufacturer could have done this. All were so caught up in playing catch-up with Excel that they never thought to sit down a
I will probably get moderated into karma hell for this, but I wholeheartedly agree with you. I really, REALLY wanted to like Open Office, but it can't even play catch up with MS Office.
Your point about Excel 2007 are spot on. I live on pivot tables, and the conditional formatting, and while I could do some of it with Excel 2003, the new paradigms in the 2007 version are awesome.
Lots of people here drink the Koolaid that OO is a contender, but it really falls flat.
Open Office doesn't *have* to be as good. It's more than good enough for 99% of what most companies need to do, and the price is right. Moreover, the hidden IT costs (MANY person-hours) of having to diddle with Microsoft's licensing disappears too.
I guess it depends on Ellison - will his hate of all things MS make him sink millions into OO and make it a true competitor to MSO, or will he head the bean counters and cut it lose?
The geek sees an office suite.
Microsoft sees an office system that scales to a business of any size:
Open Office has a target on its back (Score:3, Interesting)
It will be very interesting to see how that pans out. I rather like Open Office - it's quirky and kind of ugly, but it does work and its drawing tools are great for business graphics. but its presentation tool (competitor for PowerPoint) sucks even worse than PowerPoint, and PowerPoint is at an advanced stage of suckitude. That said, I hope Ellison sees the promise in Open Office and really runs with it. If he could make OpenOffice presentation better than Keynote, word processing better than Word, and spreadsheet better than Excel, I would pay real money for that.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a niche product, doesn't and probably can't make enough money to support itself.
Openoffice was sadly never any good. It was never even good enough for them to have leapfrogging MS Office as a goal, they just had to play catch-up from years behind.
Look how much better Excel 2007 was than the previous versions. (I don't know what version exactly had the tremendous UI change). This looked like a new product, the usability was greatly enhanced. Any other spreadsheet manufacturer could have done this. All were so caught up in playing catch-up with Excel that they never thought to sit down a
Re: (Score:1)
Your point about Excel 2007 are spot on. I live on pivot tables, and the conditional formatting, and while I could do some of it with Excel 2003, the new paradigms in the 2007 version are awesome.
Lots of people here drink the Koolaid that OO is a contender, but it really falls flat.
Re: (Score:2)
Open Office doesn't *have* to be as good. It's more than good enough for 99% of what most companies need to do, and the price is right. Moreover, the hidden IT costs (MANY person-hours) of having to diddle with Microsoft's licensing disappears too.
Re: (Score:2)
I guess it depends on Ellison - will his hate of all things MS make him sink millions into OO and make it a true competitor to MSO, or will he head the bean counters and cut it lose?
The geek sees an office suite.
Microsoft sees an office system that scales to a business of any size:
Microsoft, Google, and VMware redefine the OS [cnet.com], Microsoft's SharePoint Thrives in the Recession [nytimes.com]
100 million seats for SharePoint.
This is the market in which Ellison must compete - and throwing a few more pennies into OpenOffice.o