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Do you know why a problem like this becomes such a worldwide crisis instead of just an annoying glitch? It's the same reason an IIS bug results in most of the world's networks grinding to a congested halt: everyone is using the same software.

But there are alternatives. WordPerfect Office 11 was released yesterday (interesting, eh?). And if you want something free, why not use OpenOffice.org 1.0.3 released earlier this month. It works great; I use it for everything. I haven't used Corel's product since office 9 but I used to really love it, especially the "reveal codes" feature.

The only area in which OpenOffice lacks is ease of installation for multiple users on a windows machine (use: setup /net)

To clear up some points people have commented on (based on a very preliminary inspection plus a lot of discussion at the conference):

1. The default save format is still .doc (ie you have to go the extra click to save in XML format)
2. If you pick to click it, the default XML format is MS's own office-document vocabulary, which retains all the formatting, held in attributes. Hairy but processable, and they will be shipping their schema for it so people can reprocess it externally. But this format will (of course) only represent the appearance, not any structure.
3. It will also let you specify your own schema (or an industry standard one) and let you supply a binding of named styles to your element types, so you can edit using what look like styles but actually get represented in the saved file as XML markup. There is some debate as to whether this constitutes "being an XML editor" or just "being a wordprocessor that saves data in XML" (my money is on the latter).
4. It will not support DTDs, so you're stuck with W3C Schemas whether you like them or not*
5. The discussion over a [more?] suitable schema/DTD for handling office documents (wordprocessing, spreadsheet, presentation) continues at the OASIS TC on Open Office XML Formats **

* [Bias note] I think W3C schemas were a big mistake; provision for data content typing and validation, namespaces, and extended grouping could have been achieved by extending DTD syntax; and wimpy programmers who moan about having two syntaxes to handle should get a life - it's not a big deal, the code is free and has been in use for 15 years :-)

** Sun has donated the OpenOffice (aka StarOffice) XML file formats to the public domain. It's worth remembering that {Star|Open}Office has been saving in XML as its native format for some time now, and has a lot more experience at this than MS.

Get a near-monopoly on desktop operating systems, expand into developer tools, and push the competition virually out of the marketplace by making people think they have to use your product. :-)

The same technique works well with web browsers and word processors.

GIMP is good but does not have the features of Photo Paint 9.

GIMP is good but does not have the features of Photo Paint 9.

To everyone that cares: STOP BITCH' and do something.

Get status in Canada and then go to the US.

That's what my plan was, except I don't need to go to the US anymore. I found everything in Canada.
There is a lack of tech jobs and the government is much more slack:)

If you want a job try corel.ca and yes its in Canada, but why should the country matter as long as there are good jobs.

I think we should stop complaining and take some action. Lets send Corel some flaming email and tell them what we really think of their licensing agreement. e-mail address for customer service is custserv2@corel.ca Also, e-mail investor relations at ir@corel.ca

I think we should stop complaining and take some action. Lets send Corel some flaming email and tell them what we really think of their licensing agreement. e-mail address for customer service is custserv2@corel.ca Also, e-mail investor relations at ir@corel.ca

Unisys have no problem with this because Netscape, the producers of the software have paid them money.

I scan an image, click a button and Corel Photopaint uses LZW to compress the image. Again, this is fine because Corel have paid up their license.

Apparently, if I put this file on a geocities page I may owe Unisys a license. If they deem me to be the operator of a Intranet Web site or an Internet Billboard Web site.

If I am such an operator eitherer Corel took care of the licensing issue (and passed part the cost on to me for me) or Unisys are ripping them off.

Either way, all I did was click a button. I didn't shift the bits around myself. I used a licensed algorithm. I don't know or care how it works.

Everyone is proposing new image formats, PNG in particular. Bugger that. I get hardly any people looking at my stuff anyway. The few I do probably don't run browsers that support these uncommon if technically superior formats. Not that I really use images much anyway.

I have sent an email to unisys asking if I need a license and also questioning if the license purchased by Corel covers my if they think I do. I've cc'd it to corel. If the /. effect is in force I bet I don't get an answer.

StarOffice, although not Free, is a decent, very full-featured, if somewhat bloated, office package, and includes presentation software.

Also, Corel has ported WordPerfect, and is porting the rest of their WordPerfect Office2000 suite, as far as I know.

Then, in the Free Software world, there is Siag Office and, of course, KOffice, which, while not finished, look promising.

So, we do have usable tools now, and great Free tools on the way.

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Get your fresh, hot kernels right here!

StarOffice, although not Free, is a decent, very full-featured, if somewhat bloated, office package, and includes presentation software.

Also, Corel has ported WordPerfect, and is porting the rest of their WordPerfect Office2000 suite, as far as I know.

Then, in the Free Software world, there is Siag Office and, of course, KOffice, which, while not finished, look promising.

So, we do have usable tools now, and great Free tools on the way.

--
Get your fresh, hot kernels right here!

StarOffice, although not Free, is a decent, very full-featured, if somewhat bloated, office package, and includes presentation software.

Also, Corel has ported WordPerfect, and is porting the rest of their WordPerfect Office2000 suite, as far as I know.

Then, in the Free Software world, there is Siag Office and, of course, KOffice, which, while not finished, look promising.

So, we do have usable tools now, and great Free tools on the way.

--
Get your fresh, hot kernels right here!