Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on May 13, 2005 11:16 PM
One reason i still use windows as a primary os inspite of being a Linux/FreeBSD/Solaris admin since 97 is Excel. I use excel at work and try to use Calc at home, but when i have to get something done, i have to use excel.
The OSS tools havent matured to the extent to support: - extensive ODBC/web data retrieval - high row counts - intuitive user interface (think Mac OS)
No user bothers to try a new product if it takes ages to load and has all the menus located differently, i doubt M$ has copyrighted the term Pivot Table, but if some new learning is required to do the same task, not many routine users prefer that.
At times i have to parse/report from logs and no OSS tool would support text based odbc connects to read a 200 meg plus ascii text and still allow you to build a pivot table with that
Excel sucks once a while, but those limitations are pretty well documented and dont show up as silly error codes most of the time
OSS tools have a long way to go before they can replace M$ office in enterprises and till that happens, they will always be taken with a pinch of salt.
bottomline: features/functionality/disk footprint/load time dont matter as much as an intuitive user experience (think Nokia/Blackberry menus)
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Posted by: Anonymous Coward on May 13, 2005 11:16 PMI use excel at work and try to use Calc at home, but when i have to get something done, i have to use excel.
The OSS tools havent matured to the extent to support:
- extensive ODBC/web data retrieval
- high row counts
- intuitive user interface (think Mac OS)
No user bothers to try a new product if it takes ages to load and has all the menus located differently, i doubt M$ has copyrighted the term Pivot Table, but if some new learning is required to do the same task, not many routine users prefer that.
At times i have to parse/report from logs and no OSS tool would support text based odbc connects to read a 200 meg plus ascii text and still allow you to build a pivot table with that
Excel sucks once a while, but those limitations are pretty well documented and dont show up as silly error codes most of the time
OSS tools have a long way to go before they can replace M$ office in enterprises and till that happens, they will always be taken with a pinch of salt.
bottomline: features/functionality/disk footprint/load time dont matter as much as an intuitive user experience (think Nokia/Blackberry menus)
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