Number 1 sign your open source project is successful is...

...Microsoft produces an ad just to smear it. Behold the Microsoft anti-OpenOffice.org propaganda:





Finished laughing yet? OpenOffice.org can "affect grades" negatively!? What kind of sick and twisted teacher is saying that!? If anything, OpenOffice.org affected mine positively.

No, I will not list the approximately 9000 reasons I'm not using Microsoft Office unless when forced to. Obviously, OpenOffice.org was one of the first things I installed on my Mac when I got it.

If, and only if, you happen to be a multinational corporation then maybe Microsoft Office might be a good choice. (I do work for a multinational corporation using Microsoft Office there, thank you very much.) In all other cases what people actually mean when they postulate it is "better" is that it is what they are used to and that they are too lazy to get used to anything else.





Just the fact that Microsoft have felt the need to commence smearing (something they have no doubt been doing for years against Apple) speaks volumes about how far OpenOffice.org has come. This consideration soothes my anger quite a lot.

Apples and oranges

One blogger ditches Linux for Mac OS X. Another blogger corrects the first blogger on the uneven playingground in the comparison. This is  something I am painfully aware of, something that makes it harder to get writing here. But since this Stuart has written such a nice piece for now I'll just rip that off a bit...

[Linux and OS X are] quite different things – a complete solution purchased from Apple with an unsupported and free software install on Apple hardware [...] Mac users in my workplace are already impressed by my Plasma Desktop, but not by the big, grey, noisy Dell box that powers it, or the ugly Dell keyboard. With Apple, you get the whole package: nice hardware, nice software – working together. [...] Make some real Linux hardware, better quality and better presented than anything from Apple, with a Linux distro and Plasma Desktop tweaked to work perfectly with the hardware and sell it as the ultimate home computer. It would take money (big, established vendor money) and balls (no one ever got sacked for selling Windows, you might for this) but maybe, just maybe, you could be the next Apple. But free.

There is wisdom in the comments too:

If you choose a random computer, Linux is much more likely to work on it than Mac OS X. [...] Apple does not just sell a sleek computer with very user friendly software. Apple sells an image and a status symbol, a “lifestyle” if you will. [...] Whether an innovation spreads in society depends on a lot of factors and it being better is just one of many. So even if one sold the perfect “fully controlled” amazing looking computer with KDE and invested a lot of money in PR, it would by no means necessarily be commercially viable. [Zanoi]

 True enough, it appears that everything “just works” – but as with Windows this is true only if you do things the way Apple (Microsoft) decide you should work. [Kjetil Kilhavn]

OK. Now I'll go back to comparing apples and oranges: Just today I have been annoyed with the many links to Apple's iTunes store from inside iTunes, I gave up listening to some OGG-files, I gave up having it show album covers and I can only shake my head at the iPhoto application in comparison to Digikam. More complaining to follow, no doubt.

Also read Windows v Ubuntu at Linux in Exile if you can stomach another silly comparison. Hilariously concludes with "a narrow victory for Windows 7".