Re: [MLUG] a good time to dump Windows?

[Phillip Kelchen <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Thursday 01 June 2006 11:48, Mark Haidekker wrote:
> We, too, have Word dominance. I don't accept that. For example, I require
> student turnins to be either pdf or an open format (i.e. OpenOffice). When
> somebody sends me a Word attachment, I can either open it with OO, or I
> can't Generally it's _them_ who want me to read their stuff, so it's their
> responsibility to provide me with a readable version. Besides, why would
> you attach a Word file if the content is formatting-free plain text?
>
> Depending on the person, I ask for a different format or point at
> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

People tend to use Word because it's what they have been trained to use: 
typing == Word. There are several reasons why people stick with Word for 
every text-making endeavour:

1. If it's an already-installed program on their system (such as Notepad), a 
different sequence of clicks through the Start menu to uncover than accessing 
Word. Now don't laugh- there are a LOT of people that think that a program 
has been removed when the shortcut on the desktop is gone or the program 
entry has been simply moved around in the Start menu. I happen to know quite 
a few of these "memorize-and-regurgitate" computer users. 

2. If the program is not already installed, such as OpenOffice, it must be 
downloaded from the Internet. Even though it is free, this requires a little 
bit of work and most people are EXTREMELY averse to doing any work that they 
do not absolutely have to do. 

3. Then they expect that the layout of everything is exactly the same as the 
program that they have been trained on, i.e. Microsoft Word. When they have 
to go under the "Preferences" menu instead of the "Options" menu, they get 
upset and say that the other program is "inferior" to the "standard" setup of 
MS Office applications. 

4. They also demand 100% perfect compatibility from the program with their old 
Office files. Any incompatibilities = more work for the user. Since they see 
Office as the standard, any program that can't process "standard" files is 
inferior. And if they happen to send out an OO-created Office-format file 
that somebody else opens up and the formatting is a little off, they usually 
get yelled at for "being too cheap to use a real program."

5. They also know that Microsoft applications are what most everybody else 
uses and use the herd mentality to justify not doing any more work (as listed 
above) if there is not a large gain to be had by using the new program. This 
means that a program like OpenOffice must be vastly superior in every way in 
the eyes of Joe Q. Public in regards to Microsoft Office for people to want 
to go get it.

6. Because of #5, if an employer, professor, or somebody else mandates that 
the person use a different program, they will generally balk at it as there 
is no excuse nor very many recourses but to learn a new program and otherwise 
do "extra" work that they would not have to do if their superior let them 
use "normal" programs. So they gripe and grumble because they have been moved 
out of their comfort zones. 

7. People will also generally find back doors to a requirement to use an 
unfamiliar program if there are any. I have seen this quite a bit in 
electronic instrumentation class, where the reports had to be submitted in 
PDF or Open Document format (or I suppose ASCII text would have worked, so 
would have standard HTML.) The most common trick was to go to the computer 
lab and use the PDF export button in Word on computers with Adobe Acrobat. 
Another one was to type the report up in Word and simply copy-and-paste into 
OpenOffice or into an online AJAX word processor that supports ODF, such as 
Writely. Microsoft is supposed to be making a stand-alone Office <-> ODF 
converter that does not actually integrate into MS Office applications, so it 
would enable the use of ODF documents without making them easily available to 
be saved into but allows for the transfer of them if you have to deal with 
them. Call it the "Massachusetts Workaround."

The economics and logistics can't be any more on the side of using a free and 
freely-compatible program and format over a costly and incompatible one. The 
vast majority of people must be very short-sighted and value comfort, image, 
and entertainment over freedom, knowledge, and a good long-term outcome or 
else they would all be running the less-expensive and more effective 
solutions instead of what they currently use.

Phillip



> R seems to be good, but has a steep learning curve. And I have limited
> time. I wish I could use R just like that.
>
> Mark
>
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