LXer: The Real Cost of Retraining for OpenOffice.org

“One of the most frequently voiced objections when discussing a
migration to OpenOffice.org is the cost of retraining the users.
The argument is raised as a cost barrier, and essentially amounts
to claiming that it would be cheaper to upgrade to the next version
of Microsoft Office than to retrain users on OpenOffice.org. It’s
an attempt at the old ‘libre software isn’t gratis’ argument. Let’s
examine this argument closely to find out why it doesn’t hold
water.

“The fallacy of of this argument lies in the assumption that
100% of the users will be using an office environment so new and
foreign as to render them 100% useless until trained on the new
software. If true, it certainly would explain why people balk at
the idea. In reality, it generally takes users about two weeks of
normal use to get comfortable using OpenOffice.org without any
training at all. A little training could boost productivity in the
short term by reducing the time it takes for users to familiarize
themselves with the new software…”

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