I agree with you ByTor but I think that this whole discussion is missing some key points.
Office may not be "needed" by UNIX but that would be a major plus for UNIX to be able to say we have Office. It would help some new computer user to try out UNIX instead of MS Windoze. It's a major name that will get attention. For UNIX to break out it wouldn't hurt to have the "killer app" that could sway the choice towards a better OS.
But why this won't happen, well it's easy and not covered in any of the comments I've read so far. Office can go to Mac OS X because OS X won't install on the same platform as Windoze. If MS were to port Office to UNIX then people could decide to install UNIX on their PCs rather than Windoze and that would eat at Billy-boy. The Mac is a safer bet for MS since a potential customer would have to buy an entire new system to just run the Mac OS and Office v.X .
UNIX, like any other OS that can run on a PC is the enemy to MS so they aren't going to do a single thing to help out the "competition"
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I agree with you ByTor but I think that this whole discussion is missing some key points. Office may not be "needed" by UNIX but that would be a major plus for UNIX to be able to say we have Office. It would help some new computer user to try out UNIX instead of MS Windoze. It's a major name that will get attention. For UNIX to break out it wouldn't hurt to have the "killer app" that could sway the choice towards a better OS. But why this won't happen, well it's easy and not covered in any of the comments I've read so far. Office can go to Mac OS X because OS X won't install on the same platform as Windoze. If MS were to port Office to UNIX then people could decide to install UNIX on their PCs rather than Windoze and that would eat at Billy-boy. The Mac is a safer bet for MS since a potential customer would have to buy an entire new system to just run the Mac OS and Office v.X . UNIX, like any other OS that can run on a PC is the enemy to MS so they aren't going to do a single thing to help out the "competition"