Why should you switch to OpenOffice?

I have always been a Microsoft Word user for a long time, and have used it for almost all assignments and projects (except for the longer ones where using LaTeX was more helpful). But I think now is probably a good time to switch to OpenOffice for personal projects and smaller collaborative projects.

Why so? Recently, I was mailing out some .xlsx files (that is Microsoft Excel 2007 files) to a few people, and wanted them to give me some feedback regarding the contents of the file (the file had nothing special in it, just some numbers and text). But, I soon started getting replies from people saying: "I can't seem to open the file, can you please send me the older version?" Of course! How could I forget that some people were actually still using Excel 2003, and that the 2007 version files won't work for them?

This made me think about the reasons why Microsoft decided to switch file formats. The main reason, I suppose, was to improve the way information was stored in a file. Instead of dumping all the things in one file, it makes sense to separate textual data from graphical data. To see what I mean, rename a .docx file as a .zip file and have a look at its contents. This allows for smaller file sizes, faster loading times and perhaps some other things. The more recent 2010 format is also different from the 2007 one, possibly due to the lawsuit by i4i against some IP infringement.

Another just as important reason for a corporation like Microsoft is revenue. If Microsoft stops innovating, well then they'll go broke pretty soon. More importantly though, with no way of convincing consumers (more so than corporations) to purchase the newer version of the software, profits would slowly, but surely, decrease. One effective way to convince consumers, it seems to me, is forcing file format changes.

One little problem while adding these features is compatibility. First off, if you happen to be using, say, Ubuntu, you won't be able to open any doc/docx files. Sure, OpenOffice tries to open docx files, but the support for this is sketchy at best, after all, only Microsoft (and the Office team specifically) knows how to read the .doc and .docx format. Others can only reverse engineer the format, and figure out a few parts of the puzzle. A bigger problem is compatibility between versions. If I have some conditional formatting (say if the text meets a specific condition it gets highlighted in a specific colour) in an excel spreadsheet on Office 2008 (the latest version available), and I send it over to someone who is using Windows 2007, the conditionally formatting doesn't always work! Sometimes the colours don't work correctly, and sometimes there are other problems.

On the contrary, cross OS compatibility seems to be much less of a problem in OpenOffice, and most bugs (as well as features) are usually well documented. If you need help, or have an issue, you're usually a quick google search away (or sometimes may be a forum question) away from finding the solution. Compatibility isn't much of an issue, because most people running OO.o will likely have the latest software installed (all upgrades/updates are free!), and be able to access the latest file formats. Plus, the files look and work the same regardless of which platform you use!

It seems to me like OpenOffice tries to accommodate users of all operating systems, and has a great community and user base to help you out if you run into problems. Of course, it isn't as full featured as Microsoft Office, or even Apple's iWork, yet, but if many start caring about the software they use I'm sure the project will get there sooner.

Why not supplement text books with ebooks?

I like ebooks. Although they are not tangible, they are great for quick review and light reading. Most importantly, however, they don't break your back. I'm not a weak person, but carrying three 5 pound textbooks around does create problems in the long run. So, I'm wondering, why not just have e-books instead?

I know for a fact that many textbook providers have ebooks of their textbooks, but they seem to be locked away in some far far away chamber so that no one can use them. For example, only recently, my math teacher gave us CDs of a book (in essence an e-book, but they didn't really call me that), but why not allow every teachers to hand out e-books. 

The biggest factor that I'm bringing this up is because of a few reasons.

1. I think that the way things are going right now, more people have access to technology
2. Ebooks can clearly demonstrate much more than just plain old textbooks if you combine them up with videos, links and even little animated pictures
3. Ebooks are cheaper
4. Ebooks last longer than regular books
5. They are MUCH lighter on the back

It's a wonder to see why many school boards and publishers don't resort to making ebooks more widely used. I mean, I've written about how I find a lot of FREE and GREAT ebooks on the internet to read, and so far I've been really happy with them. Why not do the same for regular textbooks.

Just a thought...

Why do I get a blogger error when I publish a post?

It's been hapenning for the past few weeks. Every time I publish a post, a window pops up and tells me that there has been an error. The post seems to turn out fine, and its published without any problems. Yet, blogger somehow seems to manage to confuse itself everytime.

Speaking of which, reminds me how blogger sometimes feels like Windows now. It has less, improperly developed features to that of other blogging systems like Wordpress and even Typepad. It can barely even format the tags right, and the most scariest of all -- It's owned by Google and Google doesn't seem to be doing much with it right now.

To be honest, I think someone at blogger needs to realize that they've been using the same darn pages for the last 3 years, and I cna barely notice any changes in the design. They do seem to tweak the 'dashboard' page every fortnight though, but it's pretty much useless in terms of improving and enhancing the publishing process. I mean, even Windows Live Writer has more features... surely Blogger must be doing someting wrong.

And then there's the question of support. In the past when I used to try to publish from Safari, it'd tell me that there was no support for Safari. Now, there's no message, and there's still no support for Safari. Assuming that most people who love blogging, or alteast even a small fraction of the bloggers out there would be owning a mac, can't they atleast add some support? Honestly though, talking about all this is making me want to switch to Wordpress.

Back to the errors: Are the errors occurring for anyone else out there? Am I doing something wrong here?

Why do Canadians always get all the cool tech stuff last?

The last time I checked, Canada was still a part of North America and RIM was a Canadian company. Yet, it seems like the Blackberry Storm will be heading down to the States first, before it becomes easily accessible for Canadian consumers (and hopefully, it won't be going to Rogers... the iPhone fiasco should be enough for a couple of years more to come). Interesting isn't it? I mean, I always believed that Canada was really technologically advanced, especially since the previous census had an option where one could fill out the form online, which was something pretty cool. But now it just seems like I'm all wrong. Even the Sony Experia isn't available in Canada yet.


Is it just me feeling this way, or does no one else care about this? I say, they should create some kind of a new law in order to help bring new technology into Canada. Its pretty wierd to know that people in India right now have cooler (and somewhat cheaper I must add)phones that what I'm using right now.