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Major Australian ISP Pulls OpenOffice

Posted by kdawson on from the can't-stand-the-competition dept.

thefickler writes "Australia's largest Internet service provider Telstra BigPond has removed OpenOffice from its unmetered file download area following the launch of its own, free, hosted, office application, BigPond Office. The removal of OpenOffice was brought to TECH.BLORGE's attention by a reader, who complained to Telstra BigPond's support department about no longer being able to download OpenOffice updates. The support people were quite open about why OpenOffice was no longer available, i.e. because it was perceived to be competitive with BigPond Office."

6 of 336 comments (clear)

  1. MS also don't host OOo by Amiga+Lover · · Score: 1, Funny

    In further news, Microsoft, creator of MS Office, also do not host downloads of Openoffice.org. More news at 11. maybe. if no real news appears before then

  2. Why stop there? by kramulous · · Score: 2, Funny

    I wish my ISP would stop all the .doc, .xls and .ppt files that come through. My world would be a smiler, happier place filled with rainbows and dew drops on kitten whiskers.

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    .
  3. Re:WTF is wrong with Australia? by Vegeta99 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, prison state, any way =)

  4. Re:Host THIS: by Feanturi · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ask if they'd be ready to pay the salary of the average office worker that suddenly can't work.

    They might respond with: "Oh, so you're using our service for business purposes? You'll need to be "upgraded" to our business package for $200/month, here I can adjust your account right now."

  5. Re:Big Pond? by Sergeant+Pepper · · Score: 2, Funny

    And who runs our Australian tax farm? Why, a loony far-right American, naturally. It's revenge for Rupert Murdoch. ;)
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    Grammar Nazi
  6. Re:Why do they even try? by houstonbofh · · Score: 2, Funny

    All the big ISP's seem to be convinced they can keep people in their own little ecosystem. God knows why. Like, what if one of their users tries to send a file generated by their supercool Bigpond Office software to someone, I dunno, who doesn't use BigPond? And it doesn't work? How useful is that?

    I have a plan! I will start an ISP, but I will have my own internal e-mail to protect others from spam! I will have my own content and forums to protect you from spam, kiddy predators, and porn. I will have limited, filtered, and very slow connections to the internet to protect you from hackers. I can call it CompuServe! (I think the name became available this August...) I should make a mint in venture capital since no one reads history anymore.