LibreOffice vs MSOffice compatibility

[forrestcupp]

I wonder what kind of university would offer courses on using word processor (the only reason I can understand the requirement) Does he/she pay for your daughter's MSO?

MSO usually costs next to nothing in most college bookstores, at least in the US.

[monkeybrain2012]

MSO usually costs next to nothing in most college bookstores, at least in the US.

As a way to cultivate addiction and dependency to the MS brand, sure. But it is not a matter of cost,. there is no bloody reason why someone has to buy MSO to write an essay in English literature, even if it costs only $10, it is still $10 too much, which could be better spent in donating or buying booze than going to MS's pocket.

[forrestcupp]

As a way to cultivate addiction and dependency to the MS brand, sure. But it is not a matter of cost,. there is no bloody reason why someone has to buy MSO to write an essay in English literature, even if it costs only $10, it is still $10 too much, which could be better spent in donating or buying booze than going to MS's pocket.

On the other hand, it's an industry standard, like Photoshop is an industry standard. Gimp can't do everything that a pro needs Photoshop for. And why should we expect the rest of the word processing world to not use the standard docx files just because an extremely small minority is using LibreOffice, which sucks at saving in that format?

At least for college students, they don't make them pay the hundreds of dollars for it, and they're setting them up to have what they need when they get out into the work world.

[monkeybrain2012]

On the other hand, it's an industry standard, like Photoshop is an industry standard. Gimp can't do everything that a pro needs Photoshop for. And why should we expect the rest of the word processing world to not use the standard docx files just because an extremely small minority is using LibreOffice, which sucks at saving in that format?

At least for college students, they don't make them pay the hundreds of dollars for it, and they're setting them up to have what they need when they get out into the work world.

Depending on what you mean by "college". If it is a community college which is just a glorified vocational school then sure, here in Canada there are some "colleges" which actually offer version specific Office courses, they produce graduates who have to be retrained whenever MicroSoft comes up with a new interface for Office or hide the buttons in different places. These are not universities and the people who teach in such places are not "professors". A community college instructor calling himself a "professor" is a misrepresentation on par of a night watchman calling himself a police inspector. I think in Canada the division is very clear, whereas in the U.S. there are some private "universities" which are actually just community colleges.

On the other hand, universities are not supposed to teach "industrial standard" which becomes obsolete in a few years, but to produce people who know how to think and learn abstractly, and hopefully creating new standards. I actually knew someone who taught a MSO course in a local college, the guy was a grad student in anthropology and never used MSO himself (he used OOO) , he just picked it up when he was teaching the course and had a good laugh that people actually paid to learn this in school.

[forrestcupp]

Depending on what you mean by "college". If it is a community college which is just a glorified vocational school then sure, here in Canada there are some "colleges" which actually offer version specific Office courses, they produce graduates who have to be retrained whenever MicroSoft comes up with a new interface for Office or hide the buttons in different places. These are not universities and the people who teach in such places are not "professors". A community college instructor calling himself a "professor" is a misrepresentation on par of a night watchman calling himself a police inspector. I think in Canada the division is very clear, whereas in the U.S. there are some private "universities" which are actually just community colleges.

On the other hand, universities are not supposed to teach "industrial standard" which becomes obsolete in a few years, but to produce people who know how to think and learn abstractly, and hopefully creating new standards. I actually knew someone who taught a MSO course in a local college, the guy was a grad student in anthropology and never used MSO himself (he used OOO) , he just picked it up when he was teaching the course and had a good laugh that people actually paid to learn this in school.

Are you really going to tell a single mother who worked her backside off to earn a bachelor's degree at a community college that she didn't go to a real university, so her degree doesn't mean squat? That's kind of a snobbish attitude to have.

But to be clear, I wasn't talking about classes teaching MSO. What I was saying is that MSO is what is used in the work world. Thus, it is the industry standard. If you think it's just the community colleges that require MSO files and real universities don't, then you're sorely mistaken. One of the big reasons they offer MSO so cheap in their bookstores is so that students can be equipped for the work world when they are out of school. Just because you don't like Office doesn't change the fact that Office is what the majority of real world offices use.

[monkeybrain2012]

Are you really going to tell a single mother who worked her backside off to earn a bachelor's degree at a community college that she didn't go to a real university, so her degree doesn't mean squat? That's kind of a snobbish attitude to have..

That is a comment on the quality of "education" offered in these colleges and I stand by it. The proper sociological conclusion from your single mother example is that in the U.S. single mothers with kids are being short changed by the system so they are forced into getting a sub par education, it has nothing to do with the ability or intelligence of single moms with kids and it doesn't have to be that way (consider the Scandinavian countries)

But to be clear, I wasn't talking about classes teaching MSO. What I was saying is that MSO is what is used in the work world. Thus, it is the industry standard. If you think it's just the community colleges that require MSO files and real universities don't, then you're sorely mistaken. One of the big reasons they offer MSO so cheap in their bookstores is so that students can be equipped for the work world when they are out of school. Just because you don't like Office doesn't change the fact that Office is what the majority of real world offices use.

Well I am a science major (so I don't use any officesuit) but many of my friends are in the humanities, among them a few professors who publish in professional journals, while most of them use MSO (old versions) but not all, and I have never heard of a requirement to use MSO to submit papers

My math prof used to say, as long as you can prove the theorems I don't care if you write it on toilet papers. Granted that may be a bit extreme, but the idea is that if we are smart enough to prove math theorems, we are smart enough to go RTFM for the "industrial standard",in my case would be LaTex. The course is on math, not text editing.

Yes, there are discount in the bookstore, that is MS's marketing, I have no doubt MS would hope that MSO becomes "required courseftware" as they like to hook people on "MicroSoft's solutions" , integrated packages to lock customers in,--and they are pushing MSS for education in U.S.'s highschool at tax payers' expenses,-- the bookstores are not affiliated with the teaching part of the university, they are just businesses, they also offer student discounts for iPhones.

[Bucky Ball]

Thread Closed

Please carry on the debate in private. This thread has run its course, is getting wildly off topic and can come to no good.