Re: [libreoffice-marketing] SoftMaker Office

On 08/20/2012 01:09 PM, Tom Davies wrote:
> Hi :)
> I don't know what words marketing departments for other products use.
>
> It's just interesting to see SoftMaker being careful to avoid 
> potential problems.  They imply they handle DocX better than even MSO 
> can but then add in a disclaimer. MSO 2010 doesn't always render DocX 
> created by MSO 2007 perfectly or precisely.  That's assuming the same 
> machine and the same OS.
>
> So, although their front page makes it sound great i would want to see 
> the results from thousands or millions of different peopl using it 
> before really judging it's strengths and weaknesses.  I suspect that 
> LO is better but that could be personal bias.
>
> Simon's answer was the clincher for me
> "It does not appear to be open source, so it does not offer its users 
> either a guarantee of continuity or any of the other benefits that 
> arise from software freedom."
Softmaker is proprietary, closed source and was started in 1989. I have 
heard of them since the late 90's as an alternative to MSO.
> So, in my opinion lets just see where they are in a year or so.
>
> Being proprietary may give them a niche market that LO couldn't tap 
> into.  Imo anything that helps pull people away from MSO is good.  
> Having seen there are viable alternatives my guess is that people 
> would then gravitate towards LO.
>
> Just my 2cents
> Regards from
> Tom :)
An overlooked problem is macro compatibility. VBA macros are only truly 
compatible with MSO. Macro compatibility is a serious issue for most 
office suites. Apparently most macros are "developed" by a macro 
recorder in MSO. The "developer" often does not know VBA and can not 
edit/adapt the code as needed. I have written VBA macros and found the 
macro recorder mostly a hindrance; the code produced is not that good or 
easy to follow. Some have stated that macro compatibility is the best 
"hook" MS has to keep users from migrating to another suite.

Overall, my impression is that Softmaker is it is cheaper and works well 
for most people. Its principle problem is that it is a purely commercial 
product and while the company appears to listen to its users, it is not 
community/user based. Thus you can suffer from the whims of the developer.
> --- On *Mon, 20/8/12, Jay Lozier /<jslozier@gmail.com>/* wrote:
>
>
>     From: Jay Lozier <jslozier@gmail.com>
>     Subject: Re: [libreoffice-marketing] SoftMaker Office
>     To: marketing@global.libreoffice.org
>     Date: Monday, 20 August, 2012, 14:41
>
>     On 08/20/2012 09:15 AM, Tom Davies wrote:
>     > Hi :)
>     > Interesting choice of words to describe how accurately it
>     read/writes DocX.  Instead of saying "accurately" or "precisely"
>     they carefully choose to use the word "faithfully".  A slightly
>     more "woolly" word that lets them get away with errors that are
>     likely to appear.
>     > Regards from
>     > Tom :)
>     What terminology do others, such as Google Docs, use? I suspect
>     they are
>     using this terminology to avoid lawsuits from people who do not
>     realize
>     msox formats are proprietary when as you note the inevitable
>     gibberish
>     occurs.
>     >
>     >
>     > --- On Mon, 20/8/12, Simon Phipps <simon@webmink.com
>     </mc/compose?to=simon@webmink.com>> wrote:
>     >
>     > From: Simon Phipps <simon@webmink.com
>     </mc/compose?to=simon@webmink.com>>
>     > Subject: Re: [libreoffice-marketing] SoftMaker Office
>     > To: "Florian Monfort" <florian.monfort@gmail.com
>     </mc/compose?to=florian.monfort@gmail.com>>
>     > Cc: marketing@global.libreoffice.org
>     </mc/compose?to=marketing@global.libreoffice.org>
>     > Date: Monday, 20 August, 2012, 12:15
>     >
>     >
>     > On 20 Aug 2012, at 10:37, Florian Monfort wrote:
>     >
>     >> Is it any good compared to LibreOffice ?
>     >>
>     >> Wanted to have your opinion !
>     >>
>     >> http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofl_en.htm
>     > It does not appear to be open source, so it does not offer its
>     users either a guarantee of continuity or any of the other
>     benefits that arise from software freedom.
>     >
>     > S.
>     >
>     >
>     >
>
>
>     -- 
>     Jay Lozier
>     jslozier@gmail.com </mc/compose?to=jslozier@gmail.com>
>
>
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--
Jay Lozier
jslozier@gmail.com


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