open source office software on public PCs?

[Computerlab Picton]

On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 3:44 PM, Carol Hassler
<Carol.Hassler at wicourts.gov> wrote:
> Is anybody providing open source productivity software on their public
> computers? For example, Libre Office or Open Office?

We are a small, 6 branch rural library system. about 110 computers. We
have been using OpenOffice and now LibreOffice for patron and staff
computers for about 3 years.

Although suitable for simple tasks, we were running into major
interoperability issues, such as:
- Patron tries to print off resume with a lot of formatting done in MS
Word, does not print correctly from LibreOffice
- Patron creates a document, saves in .DOC format (we have it set to
do that by default) and complains that the person they sent it to says
the formatting is broken
- Staff gets spreadsheet from another enterprise created in MS Excel,
does work correctly in LibreOffice
- A complex PowerPoint presentation is totally messed up when opened
in LibreOffice

This year we found money in the budget for the service charges to put
"donated" Tech Soup sourced MS Office on patron computers, and
purchased MS Office for key staff computers. Still have LibreOffice
installed for people that like it better.

I personally use LibreOffice for all my work word processing,
spreadsheets and presentations. I work around any compatibility
issues, and anything I have to send out I publish as PDF. But for
users expecting it to replace MS Office, we found it not up to the
task.


Eric Pierce
B.Tech., MCP, A+, Server+, Network+, Internet+, Linux+, CTT+
IT Coordinator
County of Prince Edward
Public Library and Archives
www.peclibrary.org
Phone: (613) 476-5962
Fax: (613) 476-3325

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2012-03-22