Microsoft posts video of customers criticizing OpenOffice
Instead of simply listing what it believes to be the advantages of Microsoft Office over the open source OpenOffice.org productivity suite, Microsoft has compiled comments from 15 customers who switched to Office after evaluating OpenOffice. The result: this video recently posted to the company's officevideos YouTube channel, which we've embedded below. A few hours after this story was published, Microsoft set the video as "private," meaning it can no longer be viewed by the public. We found it hosted on Microsoft.com, however, so if you have Silverlight, go watch it there. After we found the Silverlight version, Microsoft set the YouTube video back to public:
The three minute video is well constructed, though it has no pretense of objectivity; Microsoft is of course only choosing quotes from customers who have switched back to its productivity suite. The video has 17 quotes in total, 14 of which complain about how OpenOffice leads to higher long-term costs, poor interoperability, lower productivity, decreased efficiency, and overall frustration (students, it can even affect your grades). The remaining three quotes describe the relief of switching back to Microsoft Office.
Though they flash past quickly, every quote is attributed to an individual, not to the software giant. After doing a little digging, we found that these quotes are actually from case studies and press articles from the last four years, most of which are hosted on Microsoft.com. (Links to these are below.)
Has your company tried OpenOffice and Office? If so, how did your own experience measure up to the complaints provided here?
Further reading
- Central Scotland Police Cuts Maintenance Costs 30 Percent By Replacing Linux Desktop (microsoft.com)
- Debt Collection Company Enables Employees To Handle Rapid Growth (microsoft.com)
- Tool Hire Company Cuts IT Costs with Switch from Open Source Software (microsoft.com)
- Large School District Weighs TCO of Microsoft (microsoft.com)
- Holding Company Empowers Employees and Decreases Costs by Replacing OpenOffice.org (microsoft.com)
- School District Makes Technology Available to Enhance Student Achievement (microsoft.com)
- Ciar Drops OpenOffice.org, Chooses Microsoft Office System for Collaboration Needs (whitepapers.zdnet.com)
- Cobra Drops OpenOffice.org, Improving Collaboration and Productivity (microsoft.com)
- Italian Manufacturer Abandons OpenOffice.org For Improved Productivity And Workflows (microsoft.com)
- Migration to Microsoft Environment Solves Compatibility Problems (microsoft.com)
- Ukrainian Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Improves Productivity Thanks To Microsoft Office 2007 (microsoft.com)
- School District Scraps Open-Source Solution, Boosts Productivity by 50 Percent (microsoft.com)
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