I find this quite entertaining. :
This web page is supposed to be an account of a company that switched from
OpenOffice to Microsoft office....
http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/bu...nkpage4212.asp
"Fast growing Malaysian footwear retailer JUKEBOX opted to deploy OpenOffice
on the Microsoft Windows platform because the open source office productivity
suite was free. However, it got less than it bargained for when it discovered
the application had certain weaknesses such as the unreliable conversion of
documents to Microsoft Office format. In addition, the company’s IT users
spurned OpenOffice, preferring to use Microsoft Office which was installed on
some of the company’s PCs.
...
In the late 1990’s, the company opted to install OpenOffice running on the
Microsoft Windows platform for its office staff. The move to use the open
source office productivity suite was because “it was free,” says Anson Leow,
Marketing Manager of Harian Shoes. Because of the need to keep IT costs low,
using OpenOffice seemed like a good idea, he explains. “Good enough turned
out to be just not good enough!”"
The URL is dated May 25, 2004. Microsoft quotes JUKEBOX as claiming that
they supposedly switched claims they migrated to OpenOffice in the late
1990's.
Here is the history of OpenOffice: http://about.openoffice.org/index.htm
"Historical background
StarDivision, the original author of the StarOffice suite of software, was
founded in Germany in the mid-1980s. It was acquired by Sun Microsystems
during the summer of 1999 and StarOffice 5.2 was released in June of 2000.
Future versions of StarOffice software, beginning with 6.0, have been built
using the OpenOffice.org source, APIs, file formats, and reference
implementation. "
Sun didn't release the proprietary StarOffice 5.2 source code to the Open
Source community until Oct 13, 2000
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn...taroffice.html
On 13 December 2000, Sun's engineers released the 613 installation set (the
latest build of Star Office) to the OpenOffice.org community, but it was a
problematic build.
Here is the first article by the then new editor of the OpenOffice.org web
site, on Dec 19, 2000
http://www.openoffice.org/editorial/SunsOpenDoor.html
"All the same, the move to open source is difficult for corporations to make.
It's also fascinating to see in progress. In my next Editor's Column, I look
at the problematic 613 build and trace the way the community addressed (and
continues to address) those problems.
...
Sun decided to release StarOffice's source code in July, less than a year
after acquiring Germany-based StarDivision for $73.5 million in August 1999.
Beginning with Version 6.0 of the suite, Sun said, StarOffice will be built
using the OpenOffice.org sources, application programming interfaces, file
formats, and reference implementation."
On Oct 16, 2002, two years after its release OpenOffice was still in pre 1.0
beta release.
http://www.newsforge.com/software/02...9.shtml?tid=11
About May 8, 2002 OpenOffice.org 1.0 production was release.
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/4190/1/
So, Microsoft is quoting JUKEBOX as "migrating to OpenOffice in the late 90's"
OpenOffice was released by Sun until Oct 13, 2000 with build StarOffice build
613, at least a YEAR after JUKEBOX claims they switched to OOo!!! The
PRODUCTION version of OOo wasn't released until May 8th, 2002, THREE YEARS
after JUKEBOX claimed they migrated to it.
Not that this is new.... There is a couple months during the year with only 28 days in them but Microsoft has said they ended support for them on the 31... One of them was the end of support for a version of Windows that "ended support of November 31"....
