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southern MN | I'm a simple dirt farmer........ Not a programmer or lawyer....
My understanding is they have to write their own source code without anyone being familiar with the code that Microsoft uses, so they need to look at the results that Microsoft creates and then write fresh code from scratch that gives the same results.
So there is the lag time of seeing what Microsoft's newest version does, and then patching their software to come up with the same results.
As software gets bigger, there are more little details to look for.
I think the biggest deal is to keep up with small file format tweaks. Reading and writing the files the same way. That can mess things up in a hurry, with some small unforeseen deal. As well as knowing what to do with 'new features'.
Microsoft itself makes 100 mistakes and oops; but they own the code and get quick feedback and do beta testing and can send out patches right away from a staff of 100s to correct the problems.
Libre has to react to the new stuff after its released and create the patches and then get feedback if the patches worked right and thrn correct the minor oops the patches didn't fix the first time....
For $100 a year per machine Microsoft can hire a staff and time to quickly update the problems it creates.
For free, Libre can react to and fix the issues that come along over time as we the users are the beta testers.
As you say, the real deal is going to be better, no question. But the free is really pretty good too. It is two different mindsets. Microsoft can mess up by being a leader and changing things, sometimes better once in a while worse. Libre is a follower, changing things to keep up, reacting to what comes out first, messing up by not following fast enough.
Paul | |
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Microsoft Office vs Libre
