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

Jamon Camisso jamon.camisso-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org
Tue May 30 23:38:55 UTC 2006


Walter Dnes wrote:
> 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.

So, to engage in wild speculation, who votes for MS creating a Linux 
port of Office or dumping money at Codeweavers or Wine vs. opening their 
.doc/.xml format or whatever their 2003 offering uses?

Anyone follow Port25, Microsoft's "Open Source Software Lab" as they 
call it (a win for ESR that): http://port25.technet.com ? I don't, 
curious as to whether it is a FUD machine or actually provides some 
insight MS's adoption/policy(ies).

Jamon


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