i was impressed with an open source effort of openoffice. i've used it since staroffice 5.0 document incompatibility is a HUGE issue. i'm referring to opening word/excel documents. Calc did not perform upto par with my basic needs of charting/graphing. Writer does not support a very import feature to me, that is available in word. Which is the ability to switch looks of the bullet/numbering function automatically when the line is indented, Helps me to speed up the Outlining time. i am very unimpress of their Impress program which crashes when I try to open approximately 20% of ppt available online when I used it. Yes, I have the lastest version. I have openoffice installed on my windows box just in case people using linux sending me documents in those format.
I have to agree with you on this. Most older people use PCs for browser/email/office suite. I see no discernable difference in ease of use between Windows/IE/outlook/office and Linux/Firefox/Thunderbird/Org. In fact Linux is probably better - Firefox is superior to IE, and with Linux the interminable maintenance of anti virus and anti spyware software is not needed. I have some personal experience with this looking after my aging mother's (stroke victim) and uncles (Parkinsons sufferer) PCs.
This argument aligns perfectly with my old signature: - linux people want it to be best and gather evidence to that effect - windows people dont care if its not best but recognize that it has the widest range of (good) software and is sometimes also best If you could do it all for free on linux I'd change - but you can't. __________________ The things people believe in are usually just what they instinctively feel is right; the justifications and arguments are the least important part of the belief. That's why you can win the argument, prove them wrong, and still they believe what they did in the first place. You've attacked the wrong thing. So what do you do? Agree to disagree. Or fight. - C. Zakalwe.
some of the DA (direct access) software networking requirements actually state that they need you on the Win XP Pro level so that you can tie into their virtual private networks, so, yeah, there is/are differences... just depends on which software application you will base your core trading around.... most of the retail platforms (Vanguard, Fidelity, etc.) don't require it. with Linux, device driver compatibility for your extremities are the biggest concern, monitors, extern devices, etc.
I say fight. Whip their rats' ass. Being passive is a losers game. Being active is a winners game. Take the fight to them.