Vendors of proprietary software are fond of warning potential customers thatopen source software isn't ready for business, typically citing subpar features or a higher total cost of ownership (TCO).
The LibreOffice project came about late in 2010 when it became increasingly uncertain what Oracle's intentions were for OpenOffice.org, which it acquired after purchasing Sun.
It's been less than two months since the Document Foundation announced that it was launching its own "fork" of the OpenOffice.org productivity software suite, but already its new LibreOffice alternative is beginning to take shape.
These are frugal times for business, and an organization starting out might have very little money to spend on IT. Even if you're part of an established business, you're probably feeling the pinch.
One of the most persistent myths surrounding Linux and other open source software is that there's no easy way to get good support. Just this week, for instance, we saw this claim used in Microsoft's anti-OpenOffice.org video, obviously with the hope of striking fear into business users' hearts.
There's never a dull moment in the land of Linux, and recent weeks have been no exception. Since no outlet can hope to give full coverage to every development that occurs, here's a roundup of some of the key events.
A happy customer might tell someone. An unhappy customer tells everyone. Converting to Linux before taking a dose of reality might make you a very unhappy customer. Let's be perfectly honest. Linux isn't for everyone-yet. However, Ubuntu, Mandriva, and a few other distributions come close but for now, Linux is a little more difficult to use than Windows.