Microsoft posts video of customers criticizing OpenOffice

[JMH]

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.

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.

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Microsoft posts video of customers criticizing OpenOffice

 

[Win7User512]

Wow, is MS that worried about OpenOffice?

 

[pacinitaly]

lower your price and people will use instead of OO or stealing it.
I can't afford the real office stuff. so I use this on my win7 rig. I paid the $499 office product on my vista rig---that I don't use and it will not work on my win7 laptop.

 

[BadHairSpray]

Wow, is MS that worried about OpenOffice?

Took the words right outa me!!!!!!!!

 

[mr pc]

My copy of MS Office wouldn't install on Win7 so I went to Open Office and it is sufficient enough for my needs.

MS should focus on the positives of their product rather than bashing the quality of a competitor based on some opinions (fabricated or not)

Open source brings computing to many people who can't afford pricey software packages and fancy computers....Open Source empowers people who would otherwise be in the dark when it comes to computing.

P.S.

Thanks to not having a proper fix for a freaking' .dll on my XP machine and Compaq's refusal to send me a recovery cd (thanks for the useless partition), I opted to try Linux and am impressed. Turned a paperweight into a functional computer again.

 

[CarlTR6]

I think MS made a big mistake in the way they handled this. I use MS office and I like it. But on my wife's netbook, for what she does, Open Office does just fine. The average user does not need the bells and whistles of MS Office.

 

[Fayla]

Wow, is MS that worried about OpenOffice?

Apple ran similar adverts against Microsoft, so I doubt it.

 

[Win7User512]

Wow, is MS that worried about OpenOffice?

Apple ran similar adverts against Microsoft, so I doubt it.

But MS owns the office productivity market.

 

[nailgunner]

It's beyond silly, because I'm sure OpenOffice can find 16 customers who will swear they saved money dropping MS.

 

[Lebon14]

About the "formatting" part of the video, I agree... I created an Excel file with graphics in Excel 2007. I opened it up in OO's equivalent and it was... weirdly formatted.

OO's a no-no in my book. Gonna use the Office key I won last year here... (some might remember).

 

[Petey7]

I believe the part about OpenOffice effecting students grades. For one class I'm taking now almost every assignment requires use of features in Office 2007/2010 that aren't available in OpenOffice. This seems to be the norm. But at the same time students can get Office 2010 Pro for $80-100, which is cheaper than most textbooks.

 

[MattRainier]

I believe the part about OpenOffice effecting students grades. For one class I'm taking now almost every assignment requires use of features in Office 2007/2010 that aren't available in OpenOffice. This seems to be the norm. But at the same time students can get Office 2010 Pro for $80-100, which is cheaper than most textbooks.

I got Office Enterprise '07 for about $75 through student discount. I do like OOo better, but for my school stuff, gotta have MSOffice, so...

 

[allend66]

Mudslinging, oh please... You'd expect better from Redmond.

 

[Boris]

My copy of MS Office wouldn't install on Win7 so I went to Open Office and it is sufficient enough for my needs.

MS should focus on the positives of their product rather than bashing the quality of a competitor based on some opinions (fabricated or not)

Open source brings computing to many people who can't afford pricey software packages and fancy computers....Open Source empowers people who would otherwise be in the dark when it comes to computing.

P.S.

Thanks to not having a proper fix for a freaking' .dll on my XP machine and Compaq's refusal to send me a recovery cd (thanks for the useless partition), I opted to try Linux and am impressed. Turned a paperweight into a functional computer again.

Amen!

 

[antharr]

Really Microsoft??

It's free and is more than enough for the person who opens the occasional Word document or spreadsheet.

 

[Tepid]

Uh,,,, actually, if all you need is Word processing, then WordPad is better for the large majority of people who don't need a full office suite and just Word Processing. And WordPad is already installed and free.

As for the rest, if all you need to do is view other office documents, you can download, for free those office document viewers.

I can accurately attest that these statements are true.....

OpenOffice leads to higher long-term costs, poor interoperability, lower productivity, decreased efficiency, and overall frustration

I would be curious as to who it is that might be using more than with Word or Excel if they are not working in any company? Therefore they don't even need the rest of either suite. And can get MS Office Home and Student for 3 PC's for around $150 to $200 dollars. And they would be far better off in the long run.

Sorry, but no matter how you slice it, OpenOffice just doesn't cut it when it comes to proper formatting and conversions. Trust me I know, we have tested it extensively.

 

[antharr]

Uh,,,, actually, if all you need is Word processing, then WordPad is better for the large majority of people who don't need a full office suite and just Word Processing. And WordPad is already installed and free.

As for the rest, if all you need to do is view other office documents, you can download, for free those office document viewers.

I can accurately attest that these statements are true.....

OpenOffice leads to higher long-term costs, poor interoperability, lower productivity, decreased efficiency, and overall frustration

I would be curious as to who it is that might be using more than with Word or Excel if they are not working in any company? Therefore they don't even need the rest of either suite. And can get MS Office Home and Student for 3 PC's for around $150 to $200 dollars. And they would be far better off in the long run.

Sorry, but no matter how you slice it, OpenOffice just doesn't cut it when it comes to proper formatting and conversions. Trust me I know, we have tested it extensively.

I have used OO on several computers in my own household and it works just fine for my wife. She uses the word processor and spreadsheet functions and it works well.

I agree with you if you need a suite for an actual business or office but for basic use I would recommend OO.

 

[Benjamin Hall]

I totally agree; opensource is strongly unreliable.
Granted, for someone who can't afford to buy the Office suite, it's a great alternative.
But for companies that wanted to cut costs, it's more cost-effective for them to just purchase a corporate license for the Office suite instead of paying out more in the long run to service the open-source software.

 

[antharr]

I do realize we are on a Microsoft related website and we all love Windows but OpenOffice is not that bad. Yes we all know that OpenOffice is not meant for business. Geez. Open Office is perfect for personal use.

 

[LiquidSnak]

Openoffice is great if you just don't use WP or spreadsheets enough to warrant spending money on it.

Microsoft is obviously taking a leaf out of our politicians' slander campaign books as of late. They would do better to offer free trials of Office.