MS's monopoly isn't based on it's OS. It is based on MS Office. The only way to fix this is to force MS to publish the file format specifcations for all of its Office Productifity Applications. These are the applications which force Companies to stay with MS today. Any company that wan't to switch to a "better" platform MUST have the ability to continue communicating with the rest of the buisness world..ie Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project. I don't care how good a Linux base Office Suite is. If it can't speak MS file formats, it's dead before it hits the door.
Its true, every day hundreds of organizations make huge donations to MS, just because its a safe bet. I wonder how many IT managers really bother to take a look at the competition to MS Office before "standardizing", and weigh the cost benifits between packages. I used to work for the Goverment in an IT capcity. I could'nt sole source a $60 video card without detailed justification as to why I wanted a particular brand/model, but for some reason, there was absolutley no problem with ordering 1000 seats of a particular office automation package at $300 a pop. Perhaps law suits will force the goverment and industry IT departments to start using what was once common sense...seek out the right tool for the job at the most economical price point. I see too many IT staff walking around these days in a MS daze. At some point these people stopped looking outside the box. Any manager who makes a decision on standardized software without investigating all of the options is not doing thier job. Indeed, doing so while working for the goverment is also illegal.
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MS's monopoly isn't based on it's OS. It is based on MS Office. The only way to fix this is to force MS to publish the file format specifcations for all of its Office Productifity Applications. These are the applications which force Companies to stay with MS today. Any company that wan't to switch to a "better" platform MUST have the ability to continue communicating with the rest of the buisness world..ie Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project. I don't care how good a Linux base Office Suite is. If it can't speak MS file formats, it's dead before it hits the door.
Bart
Its true, every day hundreds of organizations make huge donations to MS, just because its a safe bet. I wonder how many IT managers really bother to take a look at the competition to MS Office before "standardizing", and weigh the cost benifits between packages. I used to work for the Goverment in an IT capcity. I could'nt sole source a $60 video card without detailed justification as to why I wanted a particular brand/model, but for some reason, there was absolutley no problem with ordering 1000 seats of a particular office automation package at $300 a pop. Perhaps law suits will force the goverment and industry IT departments to start using what was once common sense...seek out the right tool for the job at the most economical price point. I see too many IT staff walking around these days in a MS daze. At some point these people stopped looking outside the box. Any manager who makes a decision on standardized software without investigating all of the options is not doing thier job. Indeed, doing so while working for the goverment is also illegal.
just my $.02
Bart