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Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice
Computerworld skriver, at en organisation nu kan skifte til OpenOffice.org for kun 10% af prisen for at opgradere deres eksisterende Microsoft Office-installation til Office 12, Microsofts næste version.
Det er en blanding af licens-udgifter og efteruddannelse, der gør udslaget:
Reviewers recently published screenshots of Microsoft Office 12. The screen layout and user-interface is clearly different to what most users are comfortable with.I lyset af sådanne sammenligninger - som endda går på at opgradere eksisterende MS-Office-installationer - kan det forekomme vanvittigt, at den offentlige sektor i Danmark, f.eks. skolevæsnet, bliver ved med at satse på Microsoft som noget nær hovedleverandør.
(...)
OpenOffice.org 2.0, due for release in the near future, offers the best combination of features, openness and value available. OpenOffice.org 2.0 can be a drop-in replacement for most Microsoft Office users, can read and write Microsoft Office file-formats along with the new OpenDocument Format industry standard, is available on all major platforms (Win32, Linux, Mac, Unix) and can be downloaded for zero cost.
Forestil dig f.eks., at skolevæsnet i Århus gerne vil indkøbe 100 nye elev-PC'er, som skal være udstyret med almindelig Internet- og Office-software.
Et hurtigt overslag giver for den hidtil gængse Windows + Office-løsning:
- 100 PC'er á kr. 5.000 = kr. 500.000,-
- 100 Windows XP Pro-licenser á kr. 1800 = kr. 180.000,-
- 100 Microsoft Office Professsional-licenser á kr. 2500,- = kr. 250.000,-
- I alt kr. 930.000,-
- 100 PC'er á kr. 5.000 = kr. 500.000,-
- Licens til operativsystem: kr. 0,-
- Licenser til office-pakke: kr. 0,-
- I alt kr. 500.000,-
Vælger man i stedet fri software - FreeBSD eller en Linux-variant som Edubuntu som operativsystem og OpenOffice.org og KOffice som office-pakke - er man i en situation, hvor der reelt er konkurrence om produkter, som allerede kan arbejde på éns eksisterende data, fordi alt er baseret på åbne standarder.
Selve skiftet vil koste, men lige nu har Microsoft selv sørget for, at skiftet til open source vil være betydeligt billigere end en ren opgradering til deres egen næste Office-version.
Som det opsummeres i en kommentar til ovenciterede artikel fra Computerworld:
Staten Massachusets har set skriften på væggen. Mon ikke vi snart ser den også her i Danmark?
- Open Office uses open standards, including the open document standard based on XML. The big purpose for the Open Document standard is that all word processors using it can open and modify all documents from any other word processor using it. MS Word on the other hand, uses its own proprietary, incompatible format, to try to lock you into their version since it won't work with other word processors.
- Being open source, the source code to Open Office is readily available and it can be modified, legally, to fit individual needs. MS office on the other hand is proprietary and the source code secret. It is illegal to mofify it in any manner whatsoever, you have to take what they give you or go somewhere else.
- Open Office has versions available to work with every platform in common use today. Windows, Linux (all distributions), Unix and Mac. MS Word only works with Windows, and while they did have a version for Macintosh, I don't think the newest does.
- Open Document, based on XML, is an open standard, meaning it is not encumbered with patents and is freely available for all to use. Any word processor using Open Document can interoperate with any other word processor using it. It is also to be a stable standard, where any future version of Open Document can open and edit documents saved under any previous version. Even 100 years from now. MS Word's format is ever changing. While based on XML and licenseable it is still their proprietary format and encumbered with patents, and contains licensing provisions which make it unusable by open source. And it is not compatible with Open Document.