Re: issue with beta from 2019.11.29 21:47 in Windows

[Pablo Rodriguez <oinos@gmx.es>]

On 12/6/19 10:01 AM, Arthur Reutenauer wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 05, 2019 at 08:31:45PM +0100, Pablo Rodriguez wrote:
>>                                 He was impressed that I “developed” a
>> system with no coding knowledge, but he objected that ConTeXt wasn’t
>> standard software (the standard for him was OpenOffice.org). I replied
>> that the standard was in the output PDF documents (which were PDF/A-3a).
>
>   And what did he have to say to that?

He argued that if any other person had to improve the system, (s)he
would have to learn everything.

While I cannot disagree with that, I’m afraid that this would happen, no
matter which software I deployed (library, tool, or anything else).

I must admit that altough I cannot code, GUIs distract me when working
with text. But this would be my limitation.

>> (I didn’t mention that working with OOo was a real pain and that trying
>> to write conditionals with document merging was extremely annoying for me.)
>
>   You should have.

I know, but he was one of my bosses. And I remember I was totally
shocked when he explained to me that the standard document format for
any word processor was OpenOffice.org.

I cannot recall the accurate details from his explanation, but he seemed
to think that even Microsoft Word was at fault for not implementing the
Open Document Text format (.odt) as its native format.

The reasoning was so bizarre and shocking to me that I understood that
it was better to me simply to decline the discussion. Also other factual
inaccuracies about the work done in other departments made me clear that
it was better to avoid the conversation.

OOo was the cause of many compatibility issues in that company, because
they simply uninstalled Microsoft Office and installed OpenOffice.org
(no previous warning) in one evening.

The installation was so poorly performed that they forgot to assign
Microsoft Office extensions to OOo programs in Windows. AOnly this minor
incident was a huge problem for the vast majority of users.

It was clear to me what I knew decades ago: free software isn’t programs
for free. I think they still have to deal with issues in OOo.

I only talked no more than five times with that guy. But if he was the
evangelist of free software in that company, I’m afraid I totally agree
with the people working there that hated OOo.

Pablo
--
http://www.ousia.tk
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