RE: FLASH: OT Post (Star Office v MS Office)

[Frederico]

On 1/4/00 11:41 AM, Vega, Eric via

VegaEDtvratings [dot] com

, said:


>  My

>concern (and I believe my VP's) is that of the 5,000 workstations we have,

>about 98% run office.  We just dumped tons of cash into making sure we were

>compliant per Microsoft's license agreement.  Now in the wake of all of

>that, to switch from Microsoft to Star Office would be tantamount to

>flushing all of that money.  Not to mention the cost of the time involved to

>remove Office from all of those PC's to install a different one.


It's been awhile since I looked at the exact details of our MS site 

license; they just changed it last Fall, I believe, anyway, but it sure 

seems like you're allowed to sell your license, if you choose.


Not that you'd get every penny back out of it, but it is (or should be) a 

saleable asset, thus not a total flush, if you choose to dump all or part 

of MSO from some number of your workstations.


Also, I don't see it as a total flush, even if you keep it, since both 

suites can certainly coexist on one machine (assuming MS doesn't choose 

to play it's notorious dirty pool of app-breaking), and this would aid in 

the transition period, assisting your ability to translate any 

troublesome documents as Star scrambles to deal with each 

translation-bug-report from you. You just use Star as your primary, MSO 

as your backup, until you assess your needs, successes or failures, and 

if all goes well, just let your MS licenses expire.


Regardless, money spent is money spent, it's only a psychological effect 

that makes you see it as a flush, when a better tool with a better future 

for your firm may be waiting for you to use.


Worst thing that happens, MS looks hard at losing 5000 licenses next time 

around, and they make a bid more palatable to your CFO. (; 


Actually, this is somewhat related to Flash (yeah! Right!); with the 

upcoming SVG from Adobe well on its way, many a firm will have to decide 

if MM continues to offer a better product worth keeping the investment 

in, or if a transition to Adobe is warranted, or if both should be 

maintained. Unlike your situation, what our peers are using will have 

little to do with what we choose. Whichever tool works the best will get 

our dollars. The way it looks, both will have different things to offer 

(initially), so we'll be pumping out bucks for both.


Cheers


Frederico


~If you don't face up to your problems, 

               you get a big plastic cow in your room.~


                           --Doug


Win2000 -- for better or worse -- is on its way. . .




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