Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> Homer on Saturday:
>
>> Important Notice: Microsoft Windows to be Discontinued
>>
>> ^^^^ This day can't come soon enough ^^^
>
> Office will be discontinued when they finish making an online
> version (and never figure how to monetise it).
IMHO, they are a strickly for profit shop. This is why that
Windows 3.1, 95, 98, 98SE2, ME, NT, etc. were still buggy even
with the issued patches. This is why that Office still has many
annoyances to the extent that books and websites have popped up
regarding annoyances and work arounds.
Instead of fixing the problems, they pour money into advertising,
FUD, evangelistic sales crusades, etc.
Now that the economy is down, people and businesses are less
willing to pay for "wow!" and are looking for ways to survive the
economy. To illustrate how bad things really are, I looked at
the snacks isle in the grocery section of Wal-Mart. What took up
2 isles is now down to 1, Pringles potato chips now sits on 4 six
foot wide shelves, before it was easily quadruple that.
Prior to McDonnell Douglas Corporation's demise and sale to
Boeing, I saw Douglas Aircraft Company in the early 90's go from
4 IBM mainframes to 1, E-mail and office automation eliminated
with the engineers, only supervisors were permitted that.
Advent of PC's of course make the picture easier to manage.
Ernie Ball wiped all PC's and servers clean with Linux installs,
saved considerably on continued annual licensing fees, increased
productivity by eliminating Windows bundled software
distractions, etc.
In these lean times, I can see especially companies trimming
"Windows FAT" to remain profitable. Because some software is
still only available in Windows versions, those desktops will
remain. However, there are many workers that simply use office
automation software and could make do with "generic"
applications. Those are well suited candidates for Linux.
Companies that migrate their data base access to a standards
based web interface eliminate the need for a proprietary
operating system, browser, and access software. Ditto for a web
based office automation suite.
Best part is there are applications already bundled with Linux
distros, such as Gimp that are extra cost with Windows. How
often have I seen to make do with weak Windows Paint and Office
bundled photo manager because graphics software is at additional
cost, there is no budget, make do with the tools supplied.
In spite of the trollish criticisms toward Gimp by the trolls in
this newsgroup who apparently have never tried it, Gimp is a very
powerful graphics editing software package.
To rephrase, "files must be shared in Office only format" is
simply a myth.
--
HPT
Quando omni flunkus moritati
(If all else fails, play dead)
- "Red" Green
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