The Open Office / Office Libre "font embedding" saga.
http://tinyurl.com/3oyjeuo
What they say:
http://why.openoffice.org/
Enterprises from corner-shops to corporate giants are turning to OpenOffice.org 3 to power their businesses. The flexible word processor, powerful spreadsheet, dynamic graphics, database access and more meet all the requirements for an office software package.
A completely open development process means that anyone can report bugs, request new features, or enhance the software.
The result: OpenOffice.org 3 does everything you want your office software to do, the way you want it to.
What you really get:
It doesn't SAVE the work with the fonts that you want use. You can't enhance the software to make it do this, and it doesn't do what you want it to... which is to embed the fonts that you want to use in your own documents.
What they say:
http://why.openoffice.org/why_gov.html
Data is safe.
Freedom of Information Acts require that the documents you create today will be accessible years in the future.
What you really get:
The documents that you create WILL NOT BE accessable in years to come.
If the fonts are not embedded at the time of production, then they sure as shit are not going to be there when you do reopen them many years into the future.
What they say:
http://why.openoffice.org/why_sme.html
The no-hassle answer For small businesses, IT is a hassle and an expense. OpenOffice.org 3 is simply the easiest and cheapest way of providing the essential software tools required to support a growing business. Developed over twenty years, OpenOffice.org is a mature, stable, product, guaranteeing trouble-free usage. Behind the scenes, it stores all your valuable data in a format approved by the International Organization for Standardization - the first software package in the world to meet this exacting standard.
As more companies adopt the standard, exchanging data between office software will become as easy as saving and opening a file - a system integrator's dream.
What you really get:
"Open Office" DOES NOT store ALL of your DATA... and
You CANNOT freely exchange, save and open the Open Office files - because the FONTS, THAT YOU WANT TO USE IN THEM, which ARE the actual FORMATTING AND LAYOUT - are not embedded either.
What they say:
http://why.openoffice.org/why_oem.html
Open for business OpenOffice.org 3 prides itself on its compatibility with other office software, both in the way it works and in the files it uses.
So offering OpenOffice.org 3 doesn't close off options for your clients - in fact, it opens up new opportunities for them
What you really get:
The lack of FONT embedding closes off a LOT of options for your clients.
In fact not only will it close off a LOT of options, it will completely WIPE and RUIN your clients documents entirely.
Read up on the article here:
http://tinyurl.com/3oyjeuo
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