[ale] A Real Sad Loss for Open Source in the Atlanta Area

[Jim Kinney]

On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 3:03 PM, Michael B. Trausch <mike at trausch.us> wrote:

> On Thu, 2010-10-14 at 14:53 -0400, Rich DeMARS wrote:
> > Having worked for the government myself in the past, I can see and
> > conclude that same point stated below as being one of the issues here.
> > Which also leads me to consider just how committed the County was
> > truly to success of the switch.  I just wonder why there was not more
> > training involved and why open source groups (like the ALE) where not
> > engaged for assistance.
> > But the other issue that really shines out to me here is the power of
> > document formats and many of their closed nature.  As much as open
> > source is important, so is open formats.  And I see the lack of open
> > and inter-changeable formats in environments today being a great
> > reason as to the failure of such endeavorers.
>
> I get DOC and XLS documents from people who use Word and Excel all the
> time.
>
> I have yet to receive a document that required more than a minute or two
> of touch-up before being æsthetic, and all of them were functional.
>

worst issue is fonts - second is default page margins.  Install the
liberation fonts on Linux and it's a non-issue there. page margins require
futzing. Apparently the page margins are variable all over the .doc. the
.docx keeps it's layout better on translation between odt and docx.

>
>        --- Mike
>
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-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
I would rather stumble along in freedom than walk effortlessly in chains.
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