RMS: Putting an End to Word Attachments

sombragris writes "I've spotted in NewsForge a very interesting editorial by none other than RMS himself on the subject of getting rid of those annoying MS Word attachment that people send. The essay is worth thinking and doubtless worth implementing." I've found that KWord and Abiword both did a fine job of reading Word files - it's the being able to Save As Word where things get messy.

Comments

I *HAVE* a real computer

[Eric Green]

My reply to people who send me .doc attachments: "I'm sorry, but I do not own a copy of Microsoft Word or Office. Please export your document to text or HTML and re-send it."

I do own a copy of Windows (it came with one of my computers), and I do boot it occasionally to play games and such, but like most home users I do not own a copy of Office. (Many home users have a PIRATED copy of Office, but I don't believe in piracy as an effective solution to the problem of expensive proprietary software). I have no plans of buying Office anytime soon. But the person I am corresponding with need not know any of this. All he needs to know is that a) I don't own a copy of Office, and b) thus if he wants me to read his message, he better send it in plain text or HTML.

Why would you believe that my computer or operating system has anything to do with not running Word? I don't own Word because it is expensive and because free substitutes (such as StarOffice) fill what few word processing needs I have (I'm a programmer, not a secretary). But all of that is irrelevant.

Editors are not just users!

[Chris Burke]

"Why aren't we told when editors moderate our posts?"

You missed the most important word -- editors.

Yes, I know I can be notified when "people" moderate my posts. I want to know if that "person" was an "editor". The logic that "editors are users, and thus the notification that it was a user is correct" is factually true but ignores the important issue. In the /. universe, editors have powers that mere mortals do not. They can moderate without end, bitchslap, etc. They are users, but they are not just users, and knowing that an editor is moderating your posts is important, particularly for knowing if those editors are abusing their unlimited mod points.

All I want is some accountablity for editors on slashdot. It was only just recently that I changed my signature because I decided this was an issue, particularly after reading CmdrTaco's dismissive response to the bug report.