By “this”, he meant my own incremental adoption of OO. And questions like this deserve a good answer, because they are likely to be asked again and again by people who aren’t advocates for or against anything — just people trying to get a job done. They have good reason to be skeptical if they feel they’re being asked to trade the devil they know (Microsoft) with the devil they don’t know (OpenOffice / Sun / open source in general).

Evidence-Based Open Source Adoption – Open Source Blog – InformationWeek

The results of OSS implementation go far beyond dollars saved — fewer constraints on technical staff, elimination of red tape and delays in procurement, ease in customizing applications — but it is often the cold, hard cash at the bottom line that sticks in the mind. For the government of Malaysia, which embarked upon its Malaysian Public Sector OSS Master Plan in 2004, the transition has apparently paid off. According to the Open Source Competency Center (OSSC) of the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) — Malaysia’s primary governing body — to-date, Malaysia has saved RM40 million (about $11.2 million) in licensing fees [PDF] by implementing Open Source software. Of that RM40 million, more than RM12 million ($3.4 million) has been saved through the use of OpenOffice, which is installed on more than 12,760 government systems. More than RM5 million ($1.4 million) has been saved by the Ministry of Health, nearly six times that of any other agency’s disclosed savings.

Malaysian Government Saves Big with Open Source | Linux Journal

The answers to these questions are important, because the flame war that continually threatens to erupt over them — most recently, last week — could have a direct affect on OOo’s future, and OOo is a key part of most efforts to promote a free and open source desktop. The trouble is, nobody in the controversy seems to have hold of the complete truth. As often happens when a question is reduced to either-or polarities, nuanced judgment becomes the first casualty, with none of those who are arguing willing to acknowledge that they could be both right and wrong at the same time.

OpenOffice.org vs. Go-OO: Community vs. the Suits, With a Dash of Mono | LinuxPlanet

Formally released as a product in April 2002, OpenOffice is an open source office software suite available as a free download. Sun Microsystems is the primary sponsor and main code contributor of the OpenOffice project, which also counts companies such as Novell, Red Hat, IBM and Google, as major corporate contributors.

Is OpenOffice.org a ‘dying horse’? | ZDNet Asia

Boards and committees are fine. Structure is a necessity. Transparency is obvious.

Every project needs an entrepreneur | Open Source | ZDNet.com