Comment Re:Flamebait (Score 1) 343
Well I read your whole post and I don't see an answer. Regardless, accessibility should have been one of the first things looked at. Proper research and testing should have gone into OO to determine that it would meet the needs of users with disabilities. Seeing as how this came up after the fact one would be lead to believe that Massachusetts did not do this. Thats a bad move. It shows that there was not really any oversight when the decision was made. You can hate MS all you want but you cant blame the blind.
Do you know any blind people??? I know 3. Sure the one whos into tech uses Linux and OO but the other two dont. They dont use Linux or OO cause all they want to do it simple things and its easier to do those simple things on Windows and Office. Linux is great for programming or doing complex tasks because of the command line. That holds true for both normal and visually impaired persons. However, for simple tasks, MS Office is easier. Even the guy who uses OO will admit to that. Judging by your post I dont think you know any visually impaired individuals. Grow up, this isnt about MS being the devil. These people just want to be able to read these documents without having to buy new equipment or beg some programmer to make drivers or a program that will work with what they have. Sure some of the stuff already works with OO but that doesnt mean that all of it does. What might be free to you may cost some of these people a lot of money. Freedom is only truly free when is it free for everyone not just you.
Open source still has to work regardless. If it is causing problems for people with disabilities then Massachusetts should do some serious testing and think about integrating it slowly rather then just jumping in headfirst. Governments really needs to think of these things ahead of time. A slow integration would allow blind users to continue to use MS office while OO was brought up to par. It would also give users time to learn OO and get comfortable using it. Think before you act otherwise shit like this comes up. If Massachusetts had been smart this would have never been an issue. The one to blame is Massachusetts for failing to do extensive testing, not the blind people who had no say in the matter. Making the visually impaired out to be the devils (MS) right hand doesnt make you any more correct. I believe we have history to prove that to us; i.e. The Church vs. Science. You cannot be serious when making the claims that you do. This problem could have been avoided so rather then demonizing people you should be looking at this as a lesson for the future. You can say MS is paying them but what proof do you have?
By the way, the point of history is to learn from it. Just because we made mistakes in the past doesnt mean we should make the same mistakes today. Yes, old trains did have stairs; they dont anymore because we realized we made a mistake. So we redesigned it to accommodate as many as possible. Maybe OO needs a little redesign before it goes prime time. In fact Sun is trying to do that but they seem to be doing it all alone. So relax, it will happen but this problem is an indication that things need to change and be improved.
Do you know any blind people??? I know 3. Sure the one whos into tech uses Linux and OO but the other two dont. They dont use Linux or OO cause all they want to do it simple things and its easier to do those simple things on Windows and Office. Linux is great for programming or doing complex tasks because of the command line. That holds true for both normal and visually impaired persons. However, for simple tasks, MS Office is easier. Even the guy who uses OO will admit to that. Judging by your post I dont think you know any visually impaired individuals. Grow up, this isnt about MS being the devil. These people just want to be able to read these documents without having to buy new equipment or beg some programmer to make drivers or a program that will work with what they have. Sure some of the stuff already works with OO but that doesnt mean that all of it does. What might be free to you may cost some of these people a lot of money. Freedom is only truly free when is it free for everyone not just you.
Open source still has to work regardless. If it is causing problems for people with disabilities then Massachusetts should do some serious testing and think about integrating it slowly rather then just jumping in headfirst. Governments really needs to think of these things ahead of time. A slow integration would allow blind users to continue to use MS office while OO was brought up to par. It would also give users time to learn OO and get comfortable using it. Think before you act otherwise shit like this comes up. If Massachusetts had been smart this would have never been an issue. The one to blame is Massachusetts for failing to do extensive testing, not the blind people who had no say in the matter. Making the visually impaired out to be the devils (MS) right hand doesnt make you any more correct. I believe we have history to prove that to us; i.e. The Church vs. Science. You cannot be serious when making the claims that you do. This problem could have been avoided so rather then demonizing people you should be looking at this as a lesson for the future. You can say MS is paying them but what proof do you have?
By the way, the point of history is to learn from it. Just because we made mistakes in the past doesnt mean we should make the same mistakes today. Yes, old trains did have stairs; they dont anymore because we realized we made a mistake. So we redesigned it to accommodate as many as possible. Maybe OO needs a little redesign before it goes prime time. In fact Sun is trying to do that but they seem to be doing it all alone. So relax, it will happen but this problem is an indication that things need to change and be improved.
