Make a decision: don't do what you are expected to do !

Yesterday I talked to one of my friends about OpenOffice.org. She asked me how I can recommend OpenOffice.org when Microsoft Office i obviously better.

The answer is very easy. And I will admit that Microsoft Office has some functions that are not yet available in OpenOffice.org.

The answer is: 'The difference in functionality does not justify the difference in price'. Microsoft Office is too expencive. Actually only very few people needs or uses the features in Microsoft Office that are missing in OpenOffice.org.

Comparison
When you go to buy a new car you will make a weighting between what you as a user needs and what the car cost. You will make a decision. You don't just buy the best car, because the best car might not be what you need. And it might not be what you can afford.

Lack of decision
The problem in many companies is, that the easiest thing to do is to do what we used to do. Nobody will ask questions if we do nothing (select Microsoft). What we need is some IT-Managers taking a decision. If that meens selecting Microsoft it's OK with me. As long as it's actually a decision based on analysis and calculations. But I'm sure that many companies and organisations will see that OpenOffice.org is a relevant alternative. Even if it's not exactly as feature rich as MicroSoft Office. Because nobody really uses last 5% of the suite anyway.

By the way: I'm driving a ten years old Skoda ;-)