Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Prepares Office Lock-in
An anonymous reader writes "NEWS.COM has an article describing Office 2003's DRM features for documents. This will not only coerce those running older versions of Office to upgrade, which has been a problem for MS in the last few years, but it will also shut out competing software, such as OpenOffice. Now think about this for a second. Even if the developers of a competing office suite could figure out how to get their software to open an Office 2003 document, doing so would be a DMCA violation, since they'd be bypassing an anti-circumvention device. I certainly hope the OpenOffice team will kick development into high gear. If there was a time we need a viable competitor to Office, it's now."
"Dan Leach, Microsoft's lead product manager for Office, said rights management features were built into the new Office based on ongoing discussions with customers."
Both Firebird and the Mozilla that ships with RH 9 crash when I try to view the linked article text. Errrrr... Could someone post the text?
Written like an ignorant or a MS shill. Heard of Palladium?
It's not a troll if it's true. Rob Malda really IS a penis eating machine!
Of course it's not a problem. And it's not even on by default, like you said.
But look at the Slashdot headline! "Microsoft Prepares Office Lock-In." Unbiased? Ha. Talk about spinning facts.
"Sufferin' succotash."
Just what we needed. More evidence of why Gates is so loved world-wide. I hope those who think this little exercise will backfire are right, but looking back at MS's sordid history is not encouraging. The problem might be that ordinary people don't have the devious minds of Gates and his friends.
radsoft.net
So, M$ wanna make sure the memos discussing how they fun SCO to FUD open source community will stay secret?!?
Quoting the article:
Dan Leach, Microsoft's lead product manager for Office, said rights management features were built into the new Office based on ongoing discussions with customers.
"We asked people what types of things would you like to do that you can't do now, and what they said is they'd like to spread large amounts of fecal matter all over their employees and then relase the videos on the internet--but they have concerns that the wider they spread the shit, the more likely it is to become available to the wrong people," he said.
Sorry. Had to do it.
Permission caching? Isn't that self-defeating?
Not if the point is to lock out OpenOffice.
Who cares about security? We're talking Microsoft.
Shut up you FAG - you know damn well that your boss will tell you to buy the new version of Office and you will do it and use it and continue sucking their ballz. No one in the business world uses Open Office you stupid /. posing Fuck.
Now GET THE FUCK OFF THE COMMENTS you BITCH ASS MOTHERFUCKER
Dumb stories post MICHAEL!!!!
Exactly. This is intended to allow you to protect *your* docuements; not to force you to use MS stuff.
Or is using an encrypted filesystem suddenly a ploy to 'lock you in' to using that OS? No, of course not. You want to move your data, you save it somewhere else.
Well, guess what. Want to use your docs in another program? You save them to RTF or CSV or whatever the hell is appropriate.
But, of course, it's Microsoft, so there MUST BE an eeeeeevil ulterior motive.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
EAT ME FUCKERZ!