Plenty of people have an empty admin password. Lousy administration but it happens, especially among non-experts. And it makes the admin shares world readable.
Depends on what the training is for. If it is for tools that are used in the employer's IT but on the way out of the market, it becomes more like the factory worker scenario. For example, consider a position where you should manage a Novell Netware installation. Learning to handle Netware will benefit your employer, but won't help much with your resume because there are not many jobs left which demand that particular skill.
Conroe will have an on-die memory controller, more bandwidth, and a larger register file than Yonah, which will buy it 10% at least in performance on Yonah. Where did you get that part of information? The latest news I could find, http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28602, still claims Conroe will lack an integrated memory controller. Also, AMD 65 nm chips are expected for this year, not next year.
Indeed, scientists' work is certainly important, imaginative and repetitive... I'd leave out the boring part, because I think nearly everybody who has ever published a scientific paper would agree with me that doing so is actually extremely exciting and interesting. But on your way there, you will probably have to analyze quite a few test series. That is the boring and repetitive part. Necessary, but still boring.
Depends on how much AMD will gain from going to 65nm. The Conroe is indeed quite promising. Assuming it will have the same performance per clock speed as the Core Duo and be clocked a bit higher, it will match the best AMD dual cores existing now in performance. And it might be cheaper due to the smaller die size. But AMD also made a nice step ahead when they went from 130 nm to 90 nm. If they can repeat this with their upcoming 65nm process, they might be able to stay ahead.
And next gen is just a politically correct way of saying, "we are simply making all this faster than ever". The CPU equivalent of next-gen should be more like Nintendo's Revolution than like XBox 360. Alpha64/AMD64 were next-gen, dual cores were next-gen. But now, there seems very little "real" next gen CPUs in line. Intel's house is built of cards. Don't count them out yet. The new "Core Duo" laptop CPU shows really nice performance, similar to a dual-core Athlon at same clock speed but with less power consumption. If they bring the desktop version "Conroe" this summer as promised, AMD may need the step to 65nm just to keep competitive in that part of the market.
Yes. I got here through a grey bar link. I agree it sucks, the whole thing looks like some articles are randomly reduced to such mini-announcements. Now going and looking for an option tou switch them off...
Let's assume commercial fusion reactors are available, safe and overall cheaper than running fossil fuel powerplants. Then oil- and coal driven powerplants will disappear almost automatically. How fast will depend on the exact financial numbers, but the market will handle that one nicely. In transportation, railways (electrically driven) could make a comeback and handle a lot of the long-distance transport that is done by trucks and planes today. For short-range distribution, electric cars might help. Where that is not practical due to sparse poulation (railway not economically feasible) bio-diesel might help out. And finally, there is petroleum-based chemistry. I guess that could be converted to use vegetable oils. Which would of course need time and money for development, but I see no reason why it should not work.
Now that Apple goes x86, the step from Intel to AMD might be easier than from IBMs Power chips to something else. So if Intel gets too aggressive on Apple, we might see Apple computers with AMD CPUs:-)
Not all people are gamers who really need the performance. For other people, el-cheapo models at Best Buy are (more than) sufficient. Except maybe on longevity, where things like lousy fans and faulty capacitors still are a problem.
You can always write such a player and release it under another Open Source license.
I think this is aimed at people who want to use things others have released under GPL3: You cannot legally take a GPL3ed player someone else has written and release a version with DRM of that. Think of something like Sony BMG producing an Ogg Vorbis player (lets pretend Ogg was under GPL3 for the sake of the argument) with DRM and distributing that on their music CDs.
The evidence about WMDs was so flimsy that I find it difficult to believe that someone would start a war on that basis. Also, consider the shifting reasons for invading Iraq: 1) Supposed WMDs in Iraq 2) An alleged Al-Quaeda connection (sorry, can't remember if that was before or after WMDs were the official reason), also unproved 3) and finally, when the rest of the world did not buy 1) or 2), the argumentation shifted to humanitarian reasons (free the people in Iraq). Which is the one argument that has some merit, but bringing it only after other argumentations have failed looks like Bush was merely looking for a convenient excuse.
No-bid contracts may not always be corruption in the legal sense, but they can still cause political fallout. Which is usually well deserved.
About New Orleans, the critical mistake was made long ago. Choosing a FEMA boss who knows his job in the first place might have led to an organization that could move quickly as soon as it was allowed to. The news during Katrina indicate that this was not the case. During Katrina's aftermatch in New Orleans there was indeed not much Bush could have done, and that old mistake caught up with him.
The news media claims Bush knew there were no WMDs in Iraq. Barring an admission from him, this can not be seen as credible. The Bush government claimed to have proof of WMDs in Iraq. Which turned out to be wrong. No-bid contracts have always gone to companies that those in power liked for whatever reason -- procurement issues like this happen in even the smallest towns in America, a fact glanced over by the news media. And when it is discovered, those in power deserve to be whacked for corruption. That goes for both small town mayor and president. I suppose you expected Bush to run into flooded New Orleans and rescue people himself. What was it he should have personally done? Select someone with real experience in managing rescue services as head of FEMA in the first place. Instead of someone whose only qualification was to be an old buddy.
Yes, that's because just "killing applications" that don't play the way you'd prefer them to isn't much of an option in the commercial world. It tends to lose you customers and, hence, revenue.
It's quite common in the OSS world, of course - but the OSS world has the luxuries of not needing to worry about staying in business or keeping its customers happy. It is true that you have a tradeoff between revenue and long-term stability of your architecture here. The Linux kernel developers seem a bit more willing to break things, and it may slow down Linux adoption on occasion. But Linux is far from dead anyway, and has a better track record on security. Sometimes, a long term improvement is worth a bit of pain in the short run. Reports about some application breakage in Windows XP Service Pack 2 indicate that Microsoft is coming around on this topic too. So they are on the right way, they just have a looong way to go yet.
It is unfortunately not uninstallable by default, [...]
That's because Microsoft are selling an entire product, not a series of bits stuck together like a patchwork quilt. Much like you can't just walk in and buy a new Ford without the engine, fuel tank and seats, you can't buy Windows without essential parts. But I can remove the seats and put in others from a different manufacturer. Actually, Microsoft is quite capable of offering the same flexibility in Windows XP Embedded. If they make it intentionally difficult in standard Windows versions, that decision reduces the value of the product in my eyes.
Thus giving Windows Explorer the ability to go to internet URLs and potentially get infected by IE exploits. Also, several Microsoft applications need IE to be present.
As do numerous third party applications. That's kind of the whole point behind modular, reusable code, after all. Here I think the modularity is lacking. For rendering HTML, I'd like access to the HTML rendering engine only. Without the implicit ability to pick up malicious Active X controls and the like. Another point where Microsoft is admittedly improving but still has a way to go. At least, the days of Outlook executing VB scripts in attachments without user interaction are over.
And they've had no justification for not "planning for a more restricted future" since about 1996. Still, many ignored the problem and Microsoft mostly chose not to kill their applications with the introduction of new Windows versions. Sometimes even at the expense of supporting applications that were known to be buggy. The most famous anecdote in that regard is about the Sims which had faulty memory management. Microsoft chose to program an exception for the Sims into Windows memory management rather than saying "tough luck, get a patch from Maxis".
Internet Explorer is no more deeply linked into Windows than khtml is into KDE or glibc is into Linux. It's the equivalent of a shared library, nothing more. It is unfortunately not uninstallable by default, and shared by the only available shell, Windows Explorer. Thus giving Windows Explorer the ability to go to internet URLs and potentially get infected by IE exploits. Also, several Microsoft applications need IE to be present. So while you comment may be correct from a programming point of view, IE is still more than an application you can simply uninstall for security reasons. I call that "deeply linked" and a weakness in design.
Reliability? Probably not, Intel has a pretty good reputation there. AMD might beat them on performance and power dissipation, so the computers could be faster and less noisy.
During installation, at least Windows 2000 recommends that you add a non-admin user for everyday work. That user is per default a "power user". So this may explain part of grandparent's story, if he did not check the facts in detail. Logging in as Admin later is also likely to happen, when you want to install a new service pack or something else that requires admin rights. And only the most careful users will take the time before that to clear out all the autostart options.
The roots of that lie in the past of Windows as an extension to MS-DOS, where things like a proper distiction between admin and user did not exist. And those times are not THAT long ago, considering that Windows 2000 was the first allround (usable for gaming;-) Microsoft OS with serious security.
As a result, lots of software was written by developers who could assume their creations would have admin-like access and did not bother to plan for a more restricted future. Including some sloppiness by Microsoft itself, consider Internet Explorer being linked deeply into the OS.
Now, Microsoft tries to get away from that sloppy model but has to do it slowly, lest they annoy too many customers by making their applications unusable. I expect that it will take another five years until Windows is really cleaned out.
Levels create yet more problems. If you have crafting then high levels usually have no need for low level crafters items. Low level crafters can only gain XP by grinding low level items. CUE SWG and its "bought" crafter levels where a player would get money being a combat class to then pay for grinding to master crafter. No new player wanted to be a pure crafter could make it work. You would simply go bankrupt.
DDO seems to have dropped crafting altogether. Bad news for those who like a player run economy but at least it saves them a lot of problems. Since no game has ever gotten it right before.
True, but there are ways to mitigate the problem: -Let low-level crafters make at least low-level items in good quality (or drop the dependency of quality on crafting level - if you can make it at all, it is as good as from a master). -Introduce some consumables that everybody needs which can be crafted at low skill levels. That gives the crafter newbies something to grind on which makes sense. -Allow limited "batch" crafting to reduce stupid clicking (as reportedly available in WOW, but I would limit the number of items to prevent excessive overnight leveling). -If you want to be radical, drop crafting levels altogether. Everybody is a master crafter. This one sounds like copping out, but it eliminates crafting grinding which is the most boring of all grinds. At least, I have yet to see a really interesting crafting system that does not get boring with repetition.
While I agree that a MMORPG is mainly for playing together, you may not always find a good group. In that case, it is quite OK if you can do some easier stuff on your own.
And the real reason for this reply: Unfortunately, this moronic ejaculation by all three of you completely qualifies you to write game reviews for a living. Congratulations. If I had mod points at the moment, this would bring you a -1, Flamebait. Insulting people because you disagree with them is really low and one of the reasons Slashdot sucks sometimes.
Someone who worries about 32 bucks on a 1000 dollar processor probably should not buy either the Pentium EE or the AMD FX-60. The 4400+ would be a much smarter choice, maybe 15% slower but much cheaper. The last 20% of performance are always disproportionally expensive. Unless you really need them or are really rich, buy a bit smaller.
Elite is mostly obsolete by now, anyway. Even as someone who does not insist on highly polished graphics, I find it no longer adequate. Apart from that, it has some cool features but also annoying bugs.
For newer versions of the Elite theme, consider the following: -Freelancer -X3 (beware of Starforce) -Vega Strike http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/. This one is open source, and while it is still somewhat incomplete, I find it quite promising.
Your TPM software might refuse to run
on
Trustworthy Computing
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
In some DRM scenarios, the TPM chip is also used to prove to your software that the OS has not been modified. Unless you have the skills to hack that software, your bought and paid for TPM programs may refuse to work any longer.
A much tougher case would be the "rely on others" programs where you have to prove to an external instance that your system has not been hacked. Take the "death to game cheaters" implementations as an example: Want to fix your vulnerable Windows with a non-official patch? World Of Warcraft II won't let you play anymore;)
I also don't believe this is temporary. Except in the sense that TPM might be (hopefully!) a colossal failure in the market. And considering the current vulnerability, this looks like more than a slight theoretical risk to me.
For 2006, Intel has announced a 64bit, desktop version of the new Yonah mobile processor. I guess they will clock it a bit higher at the expense of needing more power, thus creating something that matches the existing Athlon X2 chips in performance (and power dissipation). At that point, the Presler version of the P4 will be dead and not mourned. With leaves us with the question of how soon AMD can switch their own manufacturing to 65 nm. Because when they do, they might get their current advantage back.
It appears that what they're trying to say is that by addressing these Top 10 Challenges, Microsoft can prevent "younger, smaller, and more nimble competitors" from gaining a foothold in the marketplace. In other words, if Microsoft simply rests on its current monopoly status and continue to mis-execute, they're going to have some serious competition.
Which seems a quite insightful statement. Because overwhelming market share in IT means a competitive advantage through so called "network effects". If almost everybody uses your software, it is more attractive to new customers because using it will provide document compatibility with existing organizations. So if Microsoft decides to compete more seriously on quality, it will be very difficult to displace. Continuing arrogance and sloppiness, however, may create a breakthrough for the competition.
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Plenty of people have an empty admin password. Lousy administration but it happens, especially among non-experts. And it makes the admin shares world readable.
Depends on what the training is for.
If it is for tools that are used in the employer's IT but on the way out of the market, it becomes more like the factory worker scenario.
For example, consider a position where you should manage a Novell Netware installation. Learning to handle Netware will benefit your employer, but won't help much with your resume because there are not many jobs left which demand that particular skill.
Conroe will have an on-die memory controller, more bandwidth, and a larger register file than Yonah, which will buy it 10% at least in performance on Yonah.
Where did you get that part of information? The latest news I could find,
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28602,
still claims Conroe will lack an integrated memory controller.
Also, AMD 65 nm chips are expected for this year, not next year.
Indeed, scientists' work is certainly important, imaginative and repetitive... I'd leave out the boring part, because I think nearly everybody who has ever published a scientific paper would agree with me that doing so is actually extremely exciting and interesting.
But on your way there, you will probably have to analyze quite a few test series. That is the boring and repetitive part. Necessary, but still boring.
Depends on how much AMD will gain from going to 65nm.
The Conroe is indeed quite promising. Assuming it will have the same performance per clock speed as the Core Duo and be clocked a bit higher, it will match the best AMD dual cores existing now in performance. And it might be cheaper due to the smaller die size.
But AMD also made a nice step ahead when they went from 130 nm to 90 nm. If they can repeat this with their upcoming 65nm process, they might be able to stay ahead.
And next gen is just a politically correct way of saying, "we are simply making all this faster than ever". The CPU equivalent of next-gen should be more like Nintendo's Revolution than like XBox 360. Alpha64/AMD64 were next-gen, dual cores were next-gen. But now, there seems very little "real" next gen CPUs in line. Intel's house is built of cards.
Don't count them out yet.
The new "Core Duo" laptop CPU shows really nice performance, similar to a dual-core Athlon at same clock speed but with less power consumption. If they bring the desktop version "Conroe" this summer as promised, AMD may need the step to 65nm just to keep competitive in that part of the market.
Yes. I got here through a grey bar link. I agree it sucks, the whole thing looks like some articles are randomly reduced to such mini-announcements.
Now going and looking for an option tou switch them off...
Let's assume commercial fusion reactors are available, safe and overall cheaper than running fossil fuel powerplants.
Then oil- and coal driven powerplants will disappear almost automatically. How fast will depend on the exact financial numbers, but the market will handle that one nicely.
In transportation, railways (electrically driven) could make a comeback and handle a lot of the long-distance transport that is done by trucks and planes today. For short-range distribution, electric cars might help. Where that is not practical due to sparse poulation (railway not economically feasible) bio-diesel might help out.
And finally, there is petroleum-based chemistry. I guess that could be converted to use vegetable oils. Which would of course need time and money for development, but I see no reason why it should not work.
Now that Apple goes x86, the step from Intel to AMD might be easier than from IBMs Power chips to something else. :-)
So if Intel gets too aggressive on Apple, we might see Apple computers with AMD CPUs
Not all people are gamers who really need the performance.
For other people, el-cheapo models at Best Buy are (more than) sufficient. Except maybe on longevity, where things like lousy fans and faulty capacitors still are a problem.
You can always write such a player and release it under another Open Source license.
I think this is aimed at people who want to use things others have released under GPL3:
You cannot legally take a GPL3ed player someone else has written and release a version with DRM of that.
Think of something like Sony BMG producing an Ogg Vorbis player (lets pretend Ogg was under GPL3 for the sake of the argument) with DRM and distributing that on their music CDs.
The evidence about WMDs was so flimsy that I find it difficult to believe that someone would start a war on that basis. Also, consider the shifting reasons for invading Iraq:
1) Supposed WMDs in Iraq
2) An alleged Al-Quaeda connection (sorry, can't remember if that was before or after WMDs were the official reason), also unproved
3) and finally, when the rest of the world did not buy 1) or 2), the argumentation shifted to humanitarian reasons (free the people in Iraq). Which is the one argument that has some merit, but bringing it only after other argumentations have failed looks like Bush was merely looking for a convenient excuse.
No-bid contracts may not always be corruption in the legal sense, but they can still cause political fallout. Which is usually well deserved.
About New Orleans, the critical mistake was made long ago. Choosing a FEMA boss who knows his job in the first place might have led to an organization that could move quickly as soon as it was allowed to. The news during Katrina indicate that this was not the case.
During Katrina's aftermatch in New Orleans there was indeed not much Bush could have done, and that old mistake caught up with him.
The news media claims Bush knew there were no WMDs in Iraq. Barring an admission from him, this can not be seen as credible.
The Bush government claimed to have proof of WMDs in Iraq. Which turned out to be wrong.
No-bid contracts have always gone to companies that those in power liked for whatever reason -- procurement issues like this happen in even the smallest towns in America, a fact glanced over by the news media.
And when it is discovered, those in power deserve to be whacked for corruption. That goes for both small town mayor and president.
I suppose you expected Bush to run into flooded New Orleans and rescue people himself. What was it he should have personally done?
Select someone with real experience in managing rescue services as head of FEMA in the first place. Instead of someone whose only qualification was to be an old buddy.
Yes, that's because just "killing applications" that don't play the way you'd prefer them to isn't much of an option in the commercial world. It tends to lose you customers and, hence, revenue.
It's quite common in the OSS world, of course - but the OSS world has the luxuries of not needing to worry about staying in business or keeping its customers happy.
It is true that you have a tradeoff between revenue and long-term stability of your architecture here. The Linux kernel developers seem a bit more willing to break things, and it may slow down Linux adoption on occasion. But Linux is far from dead anyway, and has a better track record on security. Sometimes, a long term improvement is worth a bit of pain in the short run. Reports about some application breakage in Windows XP Service Pack 2 indicate that Microsoft is coming around on this topic too. So they are on the right way, they just have a looong way to go yet.
It is unfortunately not uninstallable by default, [...]
That's because Microsoft are selling an entire product, not a series of bits stuck together like a patchwork quilt. Much like you can't just walk in and buy a new Ford without the engine, fuel tank and seats, you can't buy Windows without essential parts.
But I can remove the seats and put in others from a different manufacturer. Actually, Microsoft is quite capable of offering the same flexibility in Windows XP Embedded. If they make it intentionally difficult in standard Windows versions, that decision reduces the value of the product in my eyes.
Thus giving Windows Explorer the ability to go to internet URLs and potentially get infected by IE exploits. Also, several Microsoft applications need IE to be present.
As do numerous third party applications. That's kind of the whole point behind modular, reusable code, after all.
Here I think the modularity is lacking. For rendering HTML, I'd like access to the HTML rendering engine only. Without the implicit ability to pick up malicious Active X controls and the like. Another point where Microsoft is admittedly improving but still has a way to go. At least, the days of Outlook executing VB scripts in attachments without user interaction are over.
And they've had no justification for not "planning for a more restricted future" since about 1996.
Still, many ignored the problem and Microsoft mostly chose not to kill their applications with the introduction of new Windows versions. Sometimes even at the expense of supporting applications that were known to be buggy.
The most famous anecdote in that regard is about the Sims which had faulty memory management. Microsoft chose to program an exception for the Sims into Windows memory management rather than saying "tough luck, get a patch from Maxis".
Internet Explorer is no more deeply linked into Windows than khtml is into KDE or glibc is into Linux. It's the equivalent of a shared library, nothing more.
It is unfortunately not uninstallable by default, and shared by the only available shell, Windows Explorer. Thus giving Windows Explorer the ability to go to internet URLs and potentially get infected by IE exploits. Also, several Microsoft applications need IE to be present.
So while you comment may be correct from a programming point of view, IE is still more than an application you can simply uninstall for security reasons. I call that "deeply linked" and a weakness in design.
Reliability? Probably not, Intel has a pretty good reputation there.
AMD might beat them on performance and power dissipation, so the computers could be faster and less noisy.
During installation, at least Windows 2000 recommends that you add a non-admin user for everyday work. That user is per default a "power user". So this may explain part of grandparent's story, if he did not check the facts in detail.
Logging in as Admin later is also likely to happen, when you want to install a new service pack or something else that requires admin rights. And only the most careful users will take the time before that to clear out all the autostart options.
The roots of that lie in the past of Windows as an extension to MS-DOS, where things like a proper distiction between admin and user did not exist. And those times are not THAT long ago, considering that Windows 2000 was the first allround (usable for gaming ;-) Microsoft OS with serious security.
As a result, lots of software was written by developers who could assume their creations would have admin-like access and did not bother to plan for a more restricted future. Including some sloppiness by Microsoft itself, consider Internet Explorer being linked deeply into the OS.
Now, Microsoft tries to get away from that sloppy model but has to do it slowly, lest they annoy too many customers by making their applications unusable. I expect that it will take another five years until Windows is really cleaned out.
Levels create yet more problems. If you have crafting then high levels usually have no need for low level crafters items. Low level crafters can only gain XP by grinding low level items. CUE SWG and its "bought" crafter levels where a player would get money being a combat class to then pay for grinding to master crafter. No new player wanted to be a pure crafter could make it work. You would simply go bankrupt.
DDO seems to have dropped crafting altogether. Bad news for those who like a player run economy but at least it saves them a lot of problems. Since no game has ever gotten it right before.
True, but there are ways to mitigate the problem:
-Let low-level crafters make at least low-level items in good quality (or drop the dependency of quality on crafting level - if you can make it at all, it is as good as from a master).
-Introduce some consumables that everybody needs which can be crafted at low skill levels. That gives the crafter newbies something to grind on which makes sense.
-Allow limited "batch" crafting to reduce stupid clicking (as reportedly available in WOW, but I would limit the number of items to prevent excessive overnight leveling).
-If you want to be radical, drop crafting levels altogether. Everybody is a master crafter. This one sounds like copping out, but it eliminates crafting grinding which is the most boring of all grinds. At least, I have yet to see a really interesting crafting system that does not get boring with repetition.
While I agree that a MMORPG is mainly for playing together, you may not always find a good group. In that case, it is quite OK if you can do some easier stuff on your own.
And the real reason for this reply:
Unfortunately, this moronic ejaculation by all three of you completely qualifies you to write game reviews for a living. Congratulations.
If I had mod points at the moment, this would bring you a -1, Flamebait. Insulting people because you disagree with them is really low and one of the reasons Slashdot sucks sometimes.
Someone who worries about 32 bucks on a 1000 dollar processor probably should not buy either the Pentium EE or the AMD FX-60. The 4400+ would be a much smarter choice, maybe 15% slower but much cheaper.
The last 20% of performance are always disproportionally expensive. Unless you really need them or are really rich, buy a bit smaller.
Elite is mostly obsolete by now, anyway. Even as someone who does not insist on highly polished graphics, I find it no longer adequate. Apart from that, it has some cool features but also annoying bugs.
For newer versions of the Elite theme, consider the following:
-Freelancer
-X3 (beware of Starforce)
-Vega Strike http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/. This one is open source, and while it is still somewhat incomplete, I find it quite promising.
In some DRM scenarios, the TPM chip is also used to prove to your software that the OS has not been modified. Unless you have the skills to hack that software, your bought and paid for TPM programs may refuse to work any longer.
;)
A much tougher case would be the "rely on others" programs where you have to prove to an external instance that your system has not been hacked. Take the "death to game cheaters" implementations as an example:
Want to fix your vulnerable Windows with a non-official patch?
World Of Warcraft II won't let you play anymore
I also don't believe this is temporary. Except in the sense that TPM might be (hopefully!) a colossal failure in the market. And considering the current vulnerability, this looks like more than a slight theoretical risk to me.
For 2006, Intel has announced a 64bit, desktop version of the new Yonah mobile processor. I guess they will clock it a bit higher at the expense of needing more power, thus creating something that matches the existing Athlon X2 chips in performance (and power dissipation). At that point, the Presler version of the P4 will be dead and not mourned.
With leaves us with the question of how soon AMD can switch their own manufacturing to 65 nm. Because when they do, they might get their current advantage back.
It appears that what they're trying to say is that by addressing these Top 10 Challenges, Microsoft can prevent "younger, smaller, and more nimble competitors" from gaining a foothold in the marketplace. In other words, if Microsoft simply rests on its current monopoly status and continue to mis-execute, they're going to have some serious competition.
Which seems a quite insightful statement. Because overwhelming market share in IT means a competitive advantage through so called "network effects". If almost everybody uses your software, it is more attractive to new customers because using it will provide document compatibility with existing organizations.
So if Microsoft decides to compete more seriously on quality, it will be very difficult to displace. Continuing arrogance and sloppiness, however, may create a breakthrough for the competition.