Actually, copyright infringement is a god given right. There's nothing in the ten commandments about not duplicating work. It does say thou shalt not steal, but stealing refers to depriving someone else of the item you've stolen, which isn't the case when producing a duplicate.
Copyright is an invention of modern law, intended to stifle the competition which would exist in a free market where anyone can produce duplicate copies of a work. It is so some people can make more money in the short term, while reducing the exposure of their media in the long term (no free copying means it will be distributed far less widely).
When an artist paints a work, how many people produce copies of it, and reprints etc, how many millions of copies of the mona lisa exist? If you want to make money from your work, sell the original, copies should be free for others to produce and distribute for the betterment of society as a whole.
Neither is windows, but microsoft are pushing it into every orifice... People will buy a brand they've heard of, wether it's suitable for the task or not.
I have used office 2007 (beta 2), but have never needed to use any features it may offer that openoffice doesn't also offer... I also found the interface very different, perhaps with some getting used to it would be better but most people i know are used to the old style interface and people generally don't like change (this is one of the biggest factors keeping people using windows).
Notes can actually do a _LOT_ more than exchange, it's a complete application programming environment and database etc, you can write your own custom apps with it... On the other hand, a mail client should do just that, read and send mail. Things like booking conference rooms, sharing calendars etc, should be handled seperately by a webapp. Using exchange for this kind of thing is a pain if you need to extend it, and it's also a huge pile of unnecessary cruft if you don't need these features. I've seen several webapps at companies for booking conference rooms, as well as many other things (booking pool cars, laptops, visitor access, food/drink etc) with a proper heirarchy (some people cant book resources, only request them and the request automatically goes to the people who can accept or deny it)
Another issue with exchange, is that both the client and server are locked in to windows, you *can* use entourage on mac, but it doesn't offer all the same features and it accesses exchange by hooking over the web interface, not through the proprietary protocol outlook uses. This makes it useless in any company where you have mixed environments, or simply no windows systems at all.
I have tested beta-2 of 2007... The interface is perhaps better if you're not already used to a more traditional interface, but if you are it's rather awkward to get to grips with. The same can be said for Linux (KDE) and OSX, for someone with no prior experience of windows, KDE or OSX is actually much easier to pick up.
Some of the issues i found with msoffice 2007 sofar are: the old document properties is now moved under a submenu called something like "finish", and then you have to further click on advanced to get all the options from the previous version. the "file" menu is gone, replaced by a round button with an msoffice logo on it, this tends to confuse people for a while the odf plugin has it's own import/export options, rather than opening/saving a file through the normal dialog (i imagine this is intentional to discourage it's use) and a few more things, tho it's late at night and i can't remember everything right now, mostly little niggles.
Both have some weird and illogical quirks... For instance, to change the paper size and orientation, in OO writer it's under format/page (seems logical, define the page format) whereas with word it's under file/properties, somewhat less logical considering all the other formatting controls are elsewhere.
I know of this, i filed it as a bug a while ago... It seems that when you make TOC entries using "levels" the hyperlinks work, but when you use index marks or "extra styles" it doesnt work... very weird and inconsistent behaviour, which i hope gets fixed soon. Meanwhile, if i want to make a decent hyperlinked pdf latex is my friend. It even creates the bookmarks properly (OO makes hyperlinks, but doesnt create the bookmark index)
Assuming you actually follow HTML specs, and even then not all browsers will be able to read it or display it the same, not to mention special purpose browsers which will display it differently by design.
Small number of companies? There are considerably more companies supporting OpenOffice than MS... Sun IBM and Novell will support OpenOffice running on several different platforms anyway. And all 3 of these companies have as much, if not more global presence than microsoft and all have strong ties to OO developers, in that all 3 companies contribute to development at some level.
These packages are also commonly used on linux distributions, and bsd, they don't need to relicense these parts, they just make them available under their existing terms.
> Also, I think Microsoft is loosing money by being this giantic monolith. They should split the company into an OS company (Windows), an Enterprise > Solution provider (SQL Server, Office,.NET), a Hardware company (XBox, Zune) and a Content provider (MSN).
The hardware and content provider companies would quickly go bankrupt...
> How many opportunities has Microsoft lost in the name of their stablished monopoly? SQL Server for Linux, BSD and Solaris? MS Office for Linux > desktops?.NET on Big Iron? There's lots of money to be made, but Microsoft can't do it, because it won't compete with itself (Windows).
SQL server isn't a terribly good database, they bought out an existing database (sybase) and went from there... Without the ability to leverage windows, it wouldn't sell much when competing against MySQL, Postgres, DB2 and Oracle. MsOffice for Linux might sell, but that would be less profitable than selling both the OS and the office suite, and msoffice would probably not have taken over from Wordperfect were it not for the unfair leveraging of windows.
Anyone else noticed that the stagnant markets are the ones where microsoft have achieved dominance? Microsoft are too big and ruthless for commercial companies to compete against, so their only competitors are open source where there's no single company to go bust or get bought out.
Really? strange... I found (on XP and 2003) that if your logged in as an unprivileged user with automatic updates turned on, the updates get installed in the background and a dialog pops up when theyre finished asking if you'd like to reboot to complete the installation. Only, your an unprivileged user so you cant trigger a reboot, so the dialog is greyed out... You can't get rid of it, even if you log out it will come back if you log back in, you have to log out, log in as an admin and then reboot the machine! If a user doesnt have privileges to reboot, they shouldn't be given the option.
IBMs just go shiny, the plastic is actually black through and through. Some of the surfaces on some IBMs are made of metal and painted black, like the underneath, in which case you see the metal if you scratch the paint off. A lot of cheaper laptops (experience with fujitsu and dell) which are silver coloured, are just painted silver and have very ugly white plastic underneath... They look awfull when you wear through the paint.
> The probolem with trying to teach "how to use a word processor" is that you *must* get one application to teach.
Not necessarily, there's no reason not to use several applications and keep switching between them to start with, this forces students to learn how to use a particular type of application in general and not just learn a single app by repetition. In later classes, you can encourage the students to choose the program they prefer from the available choices. With so many open source word processing apps out there, and virtually all supporting ODF it shouldn't be too difficult to install several apps.
Well, yes, absoloutely. What i learned with wordperfect applies to openoffice fairly well, word on the other hand has all kinds of ridiculously stupid bugs and strange behaviours that make it very difficult for someone used to better apps.
It wouldn't.... Being greedy, they're more likely to gouge $9,999,999 as quickly as possible, and then lower their prices in order to continue making sales in a competitive market place. That way they make more money, having something locked up and not selling it is pointless for a company out to make profit. The profits realised from selling copies are still very high, simply due to the low costs involved, thats why third party groups selling copied digital media still make huge profits.
The beauty of PDF being an openly documented format, is that you don't have to use adobe's reader to view it! There are plenty of PDF viewers out there, try a few and settle on one you like, most of them are better than adobe's. If the format was closed, you'd have no choice but to use the supplied reader.
Sun will support Open Office, as will Novell... I imagine RedHat will provide support for it too in so much as it's part of their linux distribution, as will any other distro maker that provides support. On the other hand, support for MS formats is only available from one place, surely this is a bigger risk?
Well, if you want to edit, you can transcode to a more open format and then edit it... It would serve to discourage the use of proprietary formats too, which is great.
No, people will exploit word through email instead, and word represents a bigger and older (more kludgy legacy code) target than IE. They can still target IE through websites, but now they have a direct method to target word aswell without having to socially engineer users into opening an attachment.
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It did make a clunk, but for no real reason...
It was possible to turn off the clunk and have it still detect inserted disks correctly.
To put it another way...
Is god suing everyone for reproducing and distributing copies of his ten commandments?
Actually, copyright infringement is a god given right.
There's nothing in the ten commandments about not duplicating work. It does say thou shalt not steal, but stealing refers to depriving someone else of the item you've stolen, which isn't the case when producing a duplicate.
Copyright is an invention of modern law, intended to stifle the competition which would exist in a free market where anyone can produce duplicate copies of a work. It is so some people can make more money in the short term, while reducing the exposure of their media in the long term (no free copying means it will be distributed far less widely).
When an artist paints a work, how many people produce copies of it, and reprints etc, how many millions of copies of the mona lisa exist? If you want to make money from your work, sell the original, copies should be free for others to produce and distribute for the betterment of society as a whole.
Neither is windows, but microsoft are pushing it into every orifice...
People will buy a brand they've heard of, wether it's suitable for the task or not.
I have used office 2007 (beta 2), but have never needed to use any features it may offer that openoffice doesn't also offer... I also found the interface very different, perhaps with some getting used to it would be better but most people i know are used to the old style interface and people generally don't like change (this is one of the biggest factors keeping people using windows).
Notes can actually do a _LOT_ more than exchange, it's a complete application programming environment and database etc, you can write your own custom apps with it...
On the other hand, a mail client should do just that, read and send mail. Things like booking conference rooms, sharing calendars etc, should be handled seperately by a webapp. Using exchange for this kind of thing is a pain if you need to extend it, and it's also a huge pile of unnecessary cruft if you don't need these features.
I've seen several webapps at companies for booking conference rooms, as well as many other things (booking pool cars, laptops, visitor access, food/drink etc) with a proper heirarchy (some people cant book resources, only request them and the request automatically goes to the people who can accept or deny it)
Another issue with exchange, is that both the client and server are locked in to windows, you *can* use entourage on mac, but it doesn't offer all the same features and it accesses exchange by hooking over the web interface, not through the proprietary protocol outlook uses. This makes it useless in any company where you have mixed environments, or simply no windows systems at all.
I have tested beta-2 of 2007... The interface is perhaps better if you're not already used to a more traditional interface, but if you are it's rather awkward to get to grips with. The same can be said for Linux (KDE) and OSX, for someone with no prior experience of windows, KDE or OSX is actually much easier to pick up.
Some of the issues i found with msoffice 2007 sofar are:
the old document properties is now moved under a submenu called something like "finish", and then you have to further click on advanced to get all the options from the previous version.
the "file" menu is gone, replaced by a round button with an msoffice logo on it, this tends to confuse people for a while
the odf plugin has it's own import/export options, rather than opening/saving a file through the normal dialog (i imagine this is intentional to discourage it's use)
and a few more things, tho it's late at night and i can't remember everything right now, mostly little niggles.
Can you show me some examples of these ms employees recommending the use of thunderbird?
Both have some weird and illogical quirks...
For instance, to change the paper size and orientation, in OO writer it's under format/page (seems logical, define the page format) whereas with word it's under file/properties, somewhat less logical considering all the other formatting controls are elsewhere.
I know of this, i filed it as a bug a while ago... It seems that when you make TOC entries using "levels" the hyperlinks work, but when you use index marks or "extra styles" it doesnt work... very weird and inconsistent behaviour, which i hope gets fixed soon.
Meanwhile, if i want to make a decent hyperlinked pdf latex is my friend. It even creates the bookmarks properly (OO makes hyperlinks, but doesnt create the bookmark index)
Assuming you actually follow HTML specs, and even then not all browsers will be able to read it or display it the same, not to mention special purpose browsers which will display it differently by design.
Small number of companies? There are considerably more companies supporting OpenOffice than MS... Sun IBM and Novell will support OpenOffice running on several different platforms anyway. And all 3 of these companies have as much, if not more global presence than microsoft and all have strong ties to OO developers, in that all 3 companies contribute to development at some level.
These packages are also commonly used on linux distributions, and bsd, they don't need to relicense these parts, they just make them available under their existing terms.
> Also, I think Microsoft is loosing money by being this giantic monolith. They should split the company into an OS company (Windows), an Enterprise > Solution provider (SQL Server, Office, .NET), a Hardware company (XBox, Zune) and a Content provider (MSN).
.NET on Big Iron? There's lots of money to be made, but Microsoft can't do it, because it won't compete with itself (Windows).
The hardware and content provider companies would quickly go bankrupt...
> How many opportunities has Microsoft lost in the name of their stablished monopoly? SQL Server for Linux, BSD and Solaris? MS Office for Linux
> desktops?
SQL server isn't a terribly good database, they bought out an existing database (sybase) and went from there... Without the ability to leverage windows, it wouldn't sell much when competing against MySQL, Postgres, DB2 and Oracle.
MsOffice for Linux might sell, but that would be less profitable than selling both the OS and the office suite, and msoffice would probably not have taken over from Wordperfect were it not for the unfair leveraging of windows.
Anyone else noticed that the stagnant markets are the ones where microsoft have achieved dominance?
Microsoft are too big and ruthless for commercial companies to compete against, so their only competitors are open source where there's no single company to go bust or get bought out.
Run konqueror, it's based on the same rendering engine as Safari so it will be a very close approximation.
Really? strange...
I found (on XP and 2003) that if your logged in as an unprivileged user with automatic updates turned on, the updates get installed in the background and a dialog pops up when theyre finished asking if you'd like to reboot to complete the installation.
Only, your an unprivileged user so you cant trigger a reboot, so the dialog is greyed out... You can't get rid of it, even if you log out it will come back if you log back in, you have to log out, log in as an admin and then reboot the machine!
If a user doesnt have privileges to reboot, they shouldn't be given the option.
IBMs just go shiny, the plastic is actually black through and through. Some of the surfaces on some IBMs are made of metal and painted black, like the underneath, in which case you see the metal if you scratch the paint off.
A lot of cheaper laptops (experience with fujitsu and dell) which are silver coloured, are just painted silver and have very ugly white plastic underneath... They look awfull when you wear through the paint.
> The probolem with trying to teach "how to use a word processor" is that you *must* get one application to teach.
Not necessarily, there's no reason not to use several applications and keep switching between them to start with, this forces students to learn how to use a particular type of application in general and not just learn a single app by repetition. In later classes, you can encourage the students to choose the program they prefer from the available choices.
With so many open source word processing apps out there, and virtually all supporting ODF it shouldn't be too difficult to install several apps.
Well, yes, absoloutely.
What i learned with wordperfect applies to openoffice fairly well, word on the other hand has all kinds of ridiculously stupid bugs and strange behaviours that make it very difficult for someone used to better apps.
It wouldn't....
Being greedy, they're more likely to gouge $9,999,999 as quickly as possible, and then lower their prices in order to continue making sales in a competitive market place. That way they make more money, having something locked up and not selling it is pointless for a company out to make profit. The profits realised from selling copies are still very high, simply due to the low costs involved, thats why third party groups selling copied digital media still make huge profits.
The beauty of PDF being an openly documented format, is that you don't have to use adobe's reader to view it!
There are plenty of PDF viewers out there, try a few and settle on one you like, most of them are better than adobe's. If the format was closed, you'd have no choice but to use the supplied reader.
Sun will support Open Office, as will Novell... I imagine RedHat will provide support for it too in so much as it's part of their linux distribution, as will any other distro maker that provides support.
On the other hand, support for MS formats is only available from one place, surely this is a bigger risk?
Well, if you want to edit, you can transcode to a more open format and then edit it... It would serve to discourage the use of proprietary formats too, which is great.
We had wordperfect when i went to college, that didn't mean that prospective employers used it.
No, people will exploit word through email instead, and word represents a bigger and older (more kludgy legacy code) target than IE.
They can still target IE through websites, but now they have a direct method to target word aswell without having to socially engineer users into opening an attachment.