Open Source Office Suite Meeting Minutes, 11/5/2003


Introductions

Joe Harris asked "What is your interest in this team?"


	Mike: 	- students don't want to spend money
		- issues of dealing with multiple formats from different apps

Joe H.: "Anyone using it in a multi-OS environment?"

	Alex Reynolds:	- Yes, Windows and Mac.  Needs a Mac alternative to MS Office.


Mike B.: A good database front end.

Greg F.: Doesn't want to spend lots of money.  (This was a group concern.)

Joe H.:  Which linux distros are being used?
	
	- Redhat
	- SUSE
	- Mandrake
	- Slackware

Joe:  An app that uses XML for cross platform support is extremely important.

Question raised about the purchase of individual apps instead of the whole suite, i.e. Powerpoint, not Office, Keynote as example.
The price of single apps from the MS Office suite are almost as expensive as the original.


Time to meet decided: Thursdays 2:00 308 Sansom West

Timeframe: 6 weeks

Purpose/Goals: Looking at applications to see how ready they are, interoperability, support issues, comparison to MS Office.

Testing Strategy: 
	Cross Platform
	Interoperability
	UI Consistency
	Contrast w/Office
	Develop list of known issues from lists, newsgroups, web, etc.

Importance of database application.
	- does KOffice have a DB application?

Which linux distro to check?

Determine licensing issues relevant to each.