Before you think of being a do-gooder...

[Walter Dnes]

On Mon, May 29, 2006 at 10:23:56AM -0400, Tim Writer wrote

> The public's constant demand for new and exciting over tried and true
> is as much responsible for this as the industry. And by "public",
> I mean individuals and businesses.

  The public doesn't demand "new" versions of Word.  They demand
versions of Word that handle all the Word documents they work with.

  - customer A has Word 97

  - customers B, C, and D buy new machines and get Word 2003, which
    defaults to saving in Word 2003 format... which Word 97 can't read.

  - customer A *MUST* get Word 2003 in order to be able to read Word
    2003 documents

  Of course, if ODF becomes the standard, then customer A can download a
free ODF-handler plugin, and doesn't have to buy Word 2003.  *THAT* hits
the Office half of Microsoft's high-margin duo.  Once a customer is
comfortable running OpenOffice, switching from Windows to linux becomes
less of a learning curve, because he won't have to dump his current
office suite.  ODF is the "thin-edge-of-the-wedge" that will make
desktop linux feasable for the mass market.  MS *MUST* stop ODF to
maintain not only their office suite monopoly, but also their Windows
monopoly.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes-SLHPyeZ9y/tg9hUCZPvPmw at public.gmane.org> In linux /sbin/init is Job #1
My musings on technology and security at http://tech_sec.blog.ca
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