__/ [ nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ] on Friday 18 May 2007 17:41 \__
>
>>
>> The cash cow is dying, just like DRM. Countries embrace OpenDocument/PDF
>> and, either way (whatever happens to oh-oh XML), see the articles below.
>> |
>> | The only competition at the moment is from open source office suites,
>> | OpenOffice in particular, which around one in five Reg readers are
>> | personally using.
>>
>> Google manager: Google Apps replaced Microsoft Office at 100,000
>> businesses
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Simon's official response explained the business rationale behind
>> | offering support for OpenOffice.org: "OpenOffice.org has becomep
>> | henomenally successful, Sun alone has shipped more than 70 million
>> | copies of OpenOffice.org 2.0," he said. "Out there, there
>> | are maybe 100 million copies of OpenOffice.org. It would be
>> | senseless to ignore that opportunity."
>
> There is a question of what percentage of the market is needed before
> monopoly lock-in tactics become ineffective. It seems that Firefox
> has now reached that percentage---businesses are designing standards
> compliant web sites (with a few exceptions like Microsoft itself)
> because they don't want to lose Firefox customers.
>
> Something similar is no doubt happening regarding office file
> formats. Office 2007 and OOXML are obviously aiming toward lock-in,
> but the total market share of all competitors---OpenOffice, Google
> office, etc---is growning, and it may be too late for lock-in to
> work. Also, if major countries start requiring ODF---Norway, for
> example---this will certainly create pressures for standards, even if
> they are in a minority.
>
> My point is that such efforts don't have to reach a majority to have a
> large impact. Local pressures for standards, or pressures restricted
> to certain segments of the market, if they are large enough, can be
> important.
>
> This is apart from the question of regulation, of course (what will
> the EU do, etc). Based on what the EU has complained about before,
> recent moves by MS seem provocative, for example, MS making sure Samba
> doesn't work with Vista, or of providing free, temporary copies of
> Office 2007 without any way to covert to older or other formats.
Taking this slight off topic, I believe the same applies to poisonous people
in forums. When they lack an audience that occasionally gives them a
(virtual) high five, they lose interest in participating. The level of troll
activity in COLA has gone down recently.
--
~~ Best regards
Roy S. Schestowitz | Useless fact: 21978 x 4 = 21978 backwards
http://Schestowitz.com | Open Prospects ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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http://iuron.com - knowledge engine, not a search engine
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