The future of Ubuntu Linux.... Will it make Micro$oft go bankrupt?

[Christopher Chan]

anthony baldwin wrote:
> Karl Auer wrote:
>   
>> On Mon, 2009-05-11 at 03:23 -0400, anthony baldwin wrote:
>>     
>>> In fact, I run a very successfull translation agency from my home 
>>> office,and we're 100% FOSS, and use OpenOffice.
>>> We handle M$Orifice files every day, without issue.
>>>       
>> However, there ARE issues. Anyone embarking on a changeover, or who has
>> relationships that depend on the exchange of word processing documents
>> would be well advised to carefully check that there is sufficient
>> interoperability for what they want to do.
>>
>> My own office has both Ubuntu+OOO and Windows+Office, and we find that
>> while the vast majority of short documents exchange flawlessly, longer
>> documents and documents using more advanced features sometimes don't
>> exchange properly. The differences range from very slight to very major.
>> Numbering is particularly sensitive (so watch out if you work with
>> contracts and other legal documents). Pagination is also a common
>> victim, mostly because font metrics can be subtly different. We have
>> standardised on a set of fonts that work well for us. Frames and images
>> are also a bugbear, alignment is often out.
>>
>> Regards, K.
>>
>>
>>     
>
> I work extensively with contracts and other legal documents.
> That's most of what I do.
>
>   
So? Karl is right. Things have gotten much better but OOW is perhaps 95% 
compatible at best with MSW and don't get me started on PowerPoint.

Somebody really needs to sink that ISO fiasco and hope governments will 
not consider OOXML an open standard.


Now if Ubuntu will get itself into a position where businesses will 
consider it...