A Creative OpenSource Config for Client

Written on August 11, 2008  |  by RP Mickler  |  Leave a Comment  | 

Just a mental note, and, for all those who might be interested.

Today, one of my clients decided to direct me to install seven laptops with OpenOffice to forgo Office 2003 Professional licensing.

Instead of using Word and Excel and PowerPoint, the user can now use the OpenOffice alternatives to these applications, and still open/use MsOffice-generated files.

In order to handle email, I was able to utilize the Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 Outlook licensing instead of using the Office license. This allowed for full groupware interaction and email capability without having to invest in the full blown Office product.

And in order to handle a custom Microsoft Access database that I wrote, I migrated the database to Microsoft Access 2007 then installed Microsoft Access 2007 Runtime: a free component from Microsoft that allows clients without Access to run without a full-blown version of it available from Microsoft Office. This was pretty cool – it offers a lot of potential opportunity for my clients to run my applications without investing in Microsoft Office.

The result: a laptop capable of meeting the company’s business objectives without an additional dime spent on Microsoft Office licensing. We’re in the pilot stages right now but so far, so good!

A creative solution that, arguably, had some time and labor invested to install. Myself, I’m interested in user feedback on OpenOffice and interoperability with their co-workers who’re using Office. Stay tuned… I’ll report what I find here.

R