Scottish Police Revert to Microsoft Office

LordGuha writes "The Central Scotland Policy is removing StarOffice and replacing it with Microsoft Office citing lower maintenance and running costs and greater integration with other departments. According to the article StarOffice was implemented in 2000 when the department was low in cash but lately have estimated that the Microsoft software would cost no more and lead to greater efficiencies."

In other news...

[sYn pHrEAk]

In other news, math skills of Scottish police reported to be at an all time low.

Re:Only 5% of users were using StarOffice

[Ithika]

Yeah, I can't stand the fact that everyone feels the need to use hugely overblown packages to do everything. Your idea seems pretty elegant, and with a bit of regexp-ing could probably be seamlessly integrated with a TeX-based system too for beautiful output. And the coppers wouldn't even have to look outside their browsers.

Re:Only 5% of users were using StarOffice

[Mick Ohrberg]

Just install vi for Windows and teach them the importance of :q!, dd, :set ts=3 and other commands.

Microsoft must have a hell of a sales team...

[mikeophile]

If they can talk the frugal out a Scotsman.

/part Scot, the stereotype is well deserved

Police moving to MS

[MECC]

Good news for any 'hacker' they're thinking of tracking down.


"Suddenly, all information on the suspect disappeared from their computer systems..."

Re:Only 5% of users were using StarOffice

[MoogMan]

Clearly you don't have enough experience in User Support.

Of course, any adept Tech Support person will tell you that one of the first things any n00b user will do is find the "Large Text" and "Cool Comic Sans Mode" buttons.

Re:Only 5% of users were using StarOffice

[hawaiian717]

You're not going to teach them to save their files before they quit?

The real reason...

[matt me]

Of course, the Scots could have used OpenOffice for free, but a top official was quoted as saying "functionally, it's a superior product, but we just prefer the MS-style clipart".

Can just imagine their posters "Wanted. Bank robber." And then it has a clipart pic of some guy in a stripey shirt holding a bag labelled "swag".

No

[Steeltoe]

REAL Cops use ed!

Reverting?

[jtcedinburgh]

You know, I just read that as:

"Scottish Police Pervert to Microsoft Office"

And suddenly it all made sense...

Re:Only 5% of users were using StarOffice

[cdrudge]

Nah. It cuts down on useless government paperwork.

One More Problem...

[Rocketship Underpant]

"go threw tens of choices" ... "Individuals has invested time in MS Office" ... "everyone who enters the Work field know Office" ... "Forth Interface" ... "Open Offices goal"

A Sixth Problem: Spell-checking and grammar checking don't seem to work properly. :)

Re:Did anyone read TFA

[cornelius1729]

Where can I get their software that cheap?

On any warez site!

Ach, laddie!

[Junior J. Junior III]

Why dinnae they switch to ScotsOffice? Microsoft, Open, whatever Office you use, if it's not Scottish, it's CRAP!

Re:In other news...

[elrous0]

Scottish Police emailed reporters a written response, but the reporters couldn't open it.

-Eric

Re:How was copper wire invented?

[elrous0]

Well, all I know about Scotland is what I've learned from Danny Boyle [imdb.com] movies. So, I'm forever doomed to think of the Scottish as a bunch of heroin-addicted, money-grubbing punks who are good at running from zombies.

-Eric

Re:*Sigh*

[EraserMouseMan]

Linux & Star Office too costly? Nope, that's not the problem. That software is free. It's the Linux zealot contractors and employees who do not practice what they preach. They tout the benefits to FOSS then turn around and bill the police department every month for their time.

Maybe if the entire Linux community (not just the software developers) offered their products and services for free Linux would be cheaper than MS.

Re:Only 5% of users were using StarOffice

[aled]

Why should they use a monolitic office bundle like vi when surely sed is simpler? it even can be scriptable...

Re:Only 5% of users were using StarOffice

[KingVance]

My money says if bill gates were to unzip his pants in front of you...you would get down on both knees and give him the BJ of his life.

Shit the cops are reading slashdot!!

[Anonymous Coward]

I take back what I said about piracy.. Downloading music is illegal!! I love Bush! Just say no to hacking!

Re:*Sigh*

[jim_v2000]

Maybe if the entire Linux community (not just the software developers) offered their products and services for free Linux would be cheaper than MS.

I can see it now...the street corners of America littered with Linux IT professionals holding signs that say "Will support Linux for food".

Re:Only 5% of users were using StarOffice

[mr_gerbik]

Yeah, I can't stand the fact that everyone feels the need to use hugely overblown packages to do everything. Your idea seems pretty elegant, and with a bit of regexp-ing could probably be seamlessly integrated with a TeX-based system too for beautiful output. ...

  You even have your choice of a wide variety of WYSIWYG web editors [geniisoft.com] if you need formatting capability.

Two comments deep and you have already gone from a simple text editor to a big piece of bloated software...

This is why OpenOffice needs Scottish Gaelic

[WillAffleckUW]

If a poor nob nae kin wri bou a pizant wi sgain, how kin the nob gi his scuttin port i da hopper?

Tha plus ih don ha up-kilt cam add-ons fer da lassies ...