Toolkit

In association with Network Liberation Movement

Story: Microsoft 'must support OpenDocument'

Posted by: Steve Thompson (Sunday 9 October 2005, 2:40 PM)

It just floors me how many folks line up in staunch support of a technology that they have to pay through the nose for, that isn't open, that doesn't run on as many platforms as its competitor, and that doesn't support as many file formats. Does it take a rocket scientist to connect the dots? Did I wake up this morning so much more intelligent than last night that this seems so easy to me?

People want to compare OpenOffice -vs- Microsoft to Netscape, but they don't really. To look at the argument you'd think the only important factor was the company of origin. Well, here's a clue for you - Netscape users had to pay for their ware, Internet Explorer was free. Gee, I guess Microsoft would be the Netscape in this situation!

Another argument goes along the lines of 'OpenOffice is so gawdawful slow, it blows chunks'. Well, I'm not gonna lie to you, starting up OpenOffice could be faster. But that is the startup. Heh, if I get the functionality I need, do I care that I have to spend an extra twenty seconds for the app to start? Not if having faster startup means forking out big money I don't!

Probably the most honest thing we can say of all the sheeple lined up to defend overpriced proprietary software is that they are sadly misinformed of the nature of the competition. 'Microsoft now supports PDF so HAH'. Oh, so you mean it hasn't been doing so for OVER A YEAR like OpenOffice? 'OpenOffice prevents people from using their MS formats'. Gee, and I thought that I'd been able to save documents in Word format (various versions no less), WordPerfect, HTML, PDF, RTF, etc, etc, etc for some time. It never occurred to me to ask my colleagues if the .DOC files I've been sending over the years had actual content or not.

C'mon people, use your brains. Why would so many of you think that supporting something that runs counter to your own self interests is A Good Thing? Is being religious so much more interesting than being right? And how sad a commentary is it that when Mass. chose a pragmatic vehicle for their future documents, such vitriol erupted.

Astounding, absolutely astounding.