Monday, March 12, 2007

OpenOffice.org urges Dell's CEO to respond to customer demand and bundle OpenOffice.org's free software alternative to Microsoft Office with

In an open letter released today, the OpenOffice.org community invites Michael Dell to work with them to pre-install OpenOffice.org 2 office software on Dell computers. Dell's own IdeaStorm website has recorded an overwhelming customer demand for this feature, currently showing more than 70,000 requests for OpenOffice.org 2.

The OpenOffice.org community is the home of the leading free software competitor to Microsoft's Office suite. The letter claims that OpenOffice.org 2 software and Dell hardware make a perfect match, sharing identical values of delivering high quality at unbeatable value. A joint development by Dell and OpenOffice.org raises the prospect of an "OpenOffice.org supplied by Dell" product, with finance from Dell helping to built security for the open-source community.

Text of the letter:

Michael S.Dell, Chairman and CEO
Dell Computer Corporation
One Dell Way
Round Rock, Texas 78682

Dear Michael

Dell Computer Corporation has become one of Fortune's “America’s Most Admired Companies” by providing great value, high quality computers and peripherals, but most of all, by listening to your customers. Your recent “IdeaStorm” initiative is the latest example of this. Here at OpenOffice.org, we were delighted to see that the second most requested feature by Dell customers was to have our office software pre-installed on Dell systems. This request attracted more than 25,000 votes in two
days.

We believe that OpenOffice.org 2 software perfectly matches Dell’s values. OpenOffice.org 2 is high quality office software, the result of over twenty years’ continuous software engineering. It runs under all common operating systems. It offers everything users expect from office software, plus some bonus features that may pleasantly surprise them. It’s easy for customers to use, with a familiar look and feel, and can read and write a wide range of file formats, including Microsoft’s. On top of all this, being licenced under open-source terms, it represents outstanding value for money for you and your customers.

Let’s have a conversation about how we could build an “OpenOffice.org supplied by Dell” product to give your customers what they are asking for. We’d also be happy to accept any financial contribution that Dell might offer to help ensure that OpenOffice.org continues to evolve in the future.

Sincerely

John McCreesh, Marketing Project Lead, OpenOffice.org

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

About OpenOffice.org

The OpenOffice.org Community is an international team of volunteer and
sponsored contributors who develop, support, and promote the leading
open-source office productivity suite, OpenOffice.org®. OpenOffice.org's
leading edge software technology (UNO) is also available for developers,
systems integrators, etc to use in OpenOffice.org extensions or in their
own applications.

OpenOffice.org supports the Open Document Format for Office Applications
(OpenDocument) OASIS Standard (ISO/IEC 26300) as well as legacy industry
file formats and is available on major computing platforms and with
native language support in over 80 languages. OpenOffice.org software is
provided under the GNU Lesser General Public Licence (LGPL) and may be
used free of charge for any purpose, private or commercial.

The OpenOffice.org Community acknowledges generous sponsorship from a
number of companies, including Sun Microsystems, the founding sponsor
and primary contributor.

Press Contacts

Louis Suarez-Potts (UTC -05h00)
OpenOffice.org Community Manager
email louis (at) openoffice.org
+1 (416) 625 3843

John McCreesh (UTC +0h00)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Lead
email jpmcc (at) openoffice.org
+44 (0)7 810 278 540

Cristian Driga (UTC +0200)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Co-Lead
email cdriga (at) openoffice.org
+40 7887 000 60

Worldwide Marketing Contacts: http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts