Azra, unfortunately I have no idea what the trouble is. I have three computers that I use regularly, and I sometimes exchange files through a Windows 2003 server. (We have one of those in our basement. My wife does most of her work on a Neoware thin client and Windows Terminal Services.) So it could be a problem with one of the OpenOffice installations that I use regularly (two Parduses and three Ubuntus, one of which also is a Kubuntu), or, like I said, it could be the way font information is handled; that might be different in KDE from Gnome. There are a lot of variables, and it would be really difficult to narrow it down.
But I do know I've had more file corruption this year, with OpenOffice, than I've had in 16 years of WordPerfect, for instance. My wife and I keep up "the big to-do list" in WordPerfect now, she on Windows and me in 6.2 in DOSEMU, and it's working out better.
It may be something about the .odt format itself (Calc workbooks seem pretty stable), but I've never heard very many complaints about data loss or big problems in .odt, so more likely it's something going on here. I wish I could be more help.
I agree that FOSS at its best works for better compatibility. But OpenOffice has been a side project for Sun for years, not their money maker, and it's obviously not anywhere near being Novell's main priority. And there's no guarantee that the developers on either side have the time to talk to each other. (And from that guy's attitude in the interview, a lot of people at Sun wouldn't want to talk to him about anything.) There are volunteer developers who have helped with OOo, but they can't carry the load by themselves.
Makes a fellow kind of wish that the government agency in Ankara that is sponsoring Pardus would hire a few more programmers and take on OOo. Not that I have any desire to spend Turkish taxpayers' hard-earned money, but it sure would be nice....
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