Slashdot Log In
OpenOffice.org Tries to Woo Dell
Posted by
Zonk
on Tue Mar 13, 2007 08:57 AM
from the maybe-they-need-to-hire-professional-wooers dept.
from the maybe-they-need-to-hire-professional-wooers dept.
Rob writes "OpenOffice.org project members have written to Dell (pdf), hoping to persuade the company to adopt OpenOffice in response to customer demand. John McCreesh, OpenOffice.org marketing project lead, writes 'Let's have a conversation about how we could build an OpenOffice.org supplied by Dell product to give your customers what they are asking for.' Demand for open source products on Dell's IdeaStorm web site prompted the letter. A somewhat obvious question is raised: why isn't OpenOffice already available by default on new PC's and Workstations?"
Related Stories
[+]
Your Rights Online: Dell Censors IdeaStorm Linux Dissent 228 comments
thefickler writes "It seems pointless to seek ideas and feedback if you're going to ignore and delete the opinions you don't like. That's exactly what Dell is doing with its IdeaStorm website, which the company set up to solicit such ideas and feedback. Dell deleted a post linking to an article that criticizes its handling of the 'pre-installed Linux' issue."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
default (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
A somewhat obvious answer: (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:A somewhat obvious answer: (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A somewhat obvious answer: (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing in the GPL forbids Dell or anyone else for charging money for the software, so Dell wouldn't just "take a cut", they can set the price they like and take 100% of it rather than having to give some of it to Microsoft.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That's actually not true. If Dell were to add an option on their website saying "OpenOffice $25", they would be allowed to charge the $25 to bundle OpenOffice with a Dell computer.
Technically true, but to bother supporting it they'd need a given threshold of their customers to choose it, and I'm guessing they don't think they will. Might also be afraid of the public backlash when some idiot consumer reporter at a TV station breaks the big story that Dell is charging customers for something they can downl
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Dell might want to offer support for OpenOffice for a very good reason - because it makes them money. On the one hand selling Microsoft Office gives Dell a small profit (I presume that nearly all the money goes to Microsoft), and low support costs (they can't be zero, since people will call even if they are immediately redirec
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Not to mention, they can add value to OpenOffice so that the Dell version is worth paying extra for, particularly by embedding all kinds of fancy widgets to direct Dell customers to Dell's certified business partners.
Re:A somewhat obvious answer: (Score:5, Insightful)
MS Office is "free" with a Small Business Desktop from Dell, haven't you heard?
The sad reality seems to be that Dell thrives at Microsoft's pleasure and they'd be dumb to muck that up. To bad the DOJ had no teeth.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
The discount vendor has an insentive in offering you these products, because that's the sort of market they're reaching out to (the technically savy). Dell already has a large enough market and it's a market that would likely be confused if they recieved OOo and not MS Office.
Just my 2g.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Huh... (Score:3, Funny)
By the way, I've sent Dell a letter about a little time management application I've been working on for a few years. I'm expecting a reply!!!
Re: (Score:2)
Here's why (Score:3, Insightful)
Because then customers would have less of an incentive to purchase MS Office. This gives MS a huge incentive to pressure Dell, et al, to not offer alternatives on a windows machine.
Seems fairly obvious to me.
Upon first glance (Score:5, Funny)
"OpenOffice.org Tries to Doo Well"
Umm... (Score:3, Insightful)
Because your average home user buying an off the shelf PC (regardless of who it's from) has no idea what Open Office is. Even if you provided it as an option, given the choice between a (seemingly) free version of some MS product and Open Office, the average customer would take Open Office. Throw in the bit about most customers expecting to get support from the PC manufacturer for everything that's on there, and you have to talk about training your tech support folks on how to handle Open Office support calls.
Tech savy users and corporate customers are likely to blow the default image away and replace it with something tweaked to their choosing, so you wouldn't be saving them a tremendous amount of time by having it installed anyway.
And a somewhat obvious answer already exists (Score:2)
I would say for the same (or at least closely related and similar) reason that PC's come with and the majority of people want/keep using Windows over other OS choices which are arguably better and just as easy or easier to use. It's what people are familiar with. I'm pretty confident your average joe on the street has heard of MS Office. That same guy probably has not heard of OpenOffice
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
On top of that, it's still not 100% compatible with MS Office... I frequently have to slightly adjust things converting between OO's .odf and Office's .doc and have had some features of Excel spreadsheets not work in OO. That alone is going to make it unacceptable for use on projects for school or work which are then going to probably be used in MS Office.
Stop Using the Proprietary MS Formats - The vast majority of people complaining about OOo complain that it doesn't open MS Documents 100% Accurately.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe our places of employment use MS formats. Maybe our customers use MS formats. Most people do. If your customers demand you send them MS office files, what are you going to do?
I often work from home. Without MS software on my home machine, I would not be able t
Because they can't up-sell you (Score:4, Insightful)
Spoonerism! (Score:2)
May I sew you to your sheets? [wikipedia.org]
Duh. (Score:2)
"Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD [Included in Price]"
A somewhat obvious answer is given. (Score:2)
Because Microsoft will give less license discount if they did.
Makes sense from Dell's perspective (Score:2)
If Dell charged for OpenOffice, open-source advocates would scream bloody murder (OMG it's supposed to be free, why does choosing OpenOffice add $50 to the price of a PC?) On the other hand, customers expect whatever comes with their computer to be supported, which costs money. There's also the opportunity cost from OpenOffice cannibalizing sales of the much more profitable MS-Office. Also, they would hurt their relationship with Microsoft. So they can either give it away and lose money, or sell it for
Instead of Wooing Dell (Score:3, Interesting)
oh wait, I forgot the guys in charge dont like Apple either.
Obvious? (Score:3, Insightful)
Obvious? What's obvious is that Dell can make a profit from MS Office. Frankly, if I were a business I would look to the profit aspect first.
Also consider tech support. I would think that Dell is going to get more support from MS than the OO people when it comes down to wide spread issues involving their product. Tech support is doubtlessly a large chunk of Dell's overhead. The better support from their software vendors the less that overhead will be. That's a big plus and anyone who's taken business-101 type classes can tell you this.
Not to mention that free software still has a stigma about it. This isn't likely to go away anytime soon.
Yeah sure... (Score:3, Funny)
This WOULD have made sense last year... (Score:3, Informative)
The problem with OO right now is that, even though OO is a great substitute and can use Office files...it CANT use Office 2007 files. People are going to be saving files with
here's a possibility (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft Office is a lot more intelligent than people give it credit for.
OpenOffice bundled on new PCs (Score:5, Interesting)
With that in mind I find it highly amusing that MS Office 2007 requires a substantial learning curve before most users can become efficient with it. Nice job yet again, Microsoft. Justify the massive pricetag of your newest product that is nothing more than a minor upgrade with a facelift by including an interface overhaul.
I have customers that are still using MS Office 97, purchased almost ten years ago. Why? Because for them, it still works just fine.
Considering that Dell already ... (Score:3, Interesting)
how about StarOffice? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
OpenOffice is freely available to anyone with an internet connection, and Dell simply doesn't see the business case for distributing and supporting it. Even if they tried to distribute with a support disclaimer there would still be a lot of calls to support about it. Also, Dell would have to distribute CDs with the source code since OpenOffice is GPL'd, etc, etc. None of it is a show-stopper, but why go through all the hassle with no reward? Distributing free software that they don't want to support (or don't think they can sell support on) doesn't make sense for Dell.
Yeah, it would be nice, but warm feelings and the respect of the
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
Even when the customer doesn't buy MS Office up front, you can be sure that MS pays Dell for every "60-day trial" version which comes installed on most PCs nowadays. Even if MS didn't unfairly retaliate, giving away OO would take away from subscribers buying or upgrading to paid MS Office so Dell would inevitably get less of a commission back from MS.
On the other hand adding a preloaded OO is unlikely to shift share to Dell so not much upside -- particularly, since the relatively small minority of users who consider this as a factor could easily download it themselves.
Plus supporting OO would add support costs.
So, while I would love personally to see more OO, I don't see the business case from Dell's perspective
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The doesn't really help dell gain new customers directly. Adding OO is a cheap way to retain happy and loyal customers and generate positive word of mouth. Dell spends millions on marketing and advertising to gain new customers. Having a full featured office suite included with the system goes a long
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If the average joe's computer came with a free word processor and spreadsheet, they no longer need to spend $250 and up on MS Office. Not only would Dell lose money from those lost software sales (which are far more pro
Re:Why? (Score:5, Informative)
1: So Dell gets a support call about Open Office. They handle it the same way they handle most technical questions about MS Office: go to the software vendor. Problem solved. No additional work required.
2: Why would Dell need to distribute CD's with source on them? Nowhere does the GPL even mention that you have to do this. All they have to do is include a piece of paper in each box that says "Want the Open Office source? Email: xxx@dell.com", or set up an FTP site, or make someone mail in a source request form, etc, etc. Problem solved.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Are you trying to tell me that Dell takes responsibility for Windows. Last time I checked, even Microsoft wouldn't take responsibility for that! Look at the EULA...
Look, Dell is huge. Running an FTP-site is something an individual like you and me can afford. In no way it will
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm actually kind of here to moderate, but, what about the reward of more customers? You know, I bet a lot of people aren't particularly happy that you don't get any real office software when you get you
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yet they offer the incompatible (and amusingly named) Microsoft Works package. If they can offer Microsoft Works by default, why can't they offer OpenOffice as an option?
I believe that is the point the author is trying to make.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)
Your Dell laptop came with a solid state hard drive?
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
In fact it works better in Linux than Windows as I can't find the damn Intel HDA drivers for this thing. Sound and wifi work out of the box with the Linux kernel.
My first laptop was a Compaq [forget the model] Athlon 1.8Ghz. It too was solid. I dropped it [in a metal case] twice, left it in the cold [in transit] and even poured about 100mL of water on it [by accident] and it kept going [af
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Or maybe it's because Dell can't make any money off OO?