Short version: If Microsoft finances or owns this kind of database, and it is successful, and many people start using it - how long do you think you will be able to visit this site with Netscape, or Opera?
Long version: For some years now Microsoft has been sending their people throughout the world collecting data, old arts collections, exclusive online publishing rights from museums and historical sites, and so on. Of course, Microsoft realizes that they cannot hold their monopoly on operating systems forever, and so they are looking for other hooks into the market.
This would not be such a bad thing at all if Microsoft was a fair player. But Microsoft's history has been known to buy, misuse or extinguish new technology just for the sake of forcing new Windows versions and applications into the market (which nobody would actually have needed, if Microsoft hadn't created an artificial "need"). And that is bad.
So: Don't be surprised if in 2001, this 40 Terabyte database tells you you need to install the latest ActiveZ plugins and the latest Internet Explorer 2000 to view the data. And, oh yes - you'll need Microsoft Wallet 2000 of course. It's a free service, after all.
Here's what I think will happen if (and that's a BIG 'if') Microsoft really decides to port "Microsoft Office" to Linux.
(They cannot port "Office", because Office aka StarOffice, ApplixOffice, WordPerfect Office,.. is already or will soon be available, and not by Microsoft.)
There will be one big binary setup chunk (no RPM or anything, because MS does not/cannot control the RPM format) called "MS Linux installer" that will scatter 1024 files around your/usr/bin,/usr/lib,/usr/share,/var/lib,/home, and/etc directories, even if you select/usr/local/office as destination directory. The "MS Linux installer" will complain that it is incompatible with other package managers and that you might want to only download *.msl packages from linux.microsoft.com for optimum system performance.
There will be an uninstall option that needs a web connection to microsoft.com, and downloads an "uninstaller" (also binary only) that only runs as root. This uninstaller will not work on many systems until after the first "service pack".
Of course, Internet Explorer 5.5 will be included with MS Office 2000 for Linux. You will have to install it "to harvest the real power of Office and to experience all of the advanced features". Internet Explorer will automatically convert your KFM and Netscape bookmarks to IE format (which will be binary, i.e. not easily converted back) and unless you go after "Advanced Install" and uncheck "Options / Internet Explorer / Post-Install Options / Advanced / [x] Autoconvert older browser bookmarks", will delete the original bookmarks. (I witnessed this behaviour on some Netscape installations I've seen - so it's not entirely fiction...)
Internet Explorer will also complain on first start that it is running in an incompatible desktop environment/window manager and that you might want to download "MS Desktop for Linux" as a.msl package from microsoft.com. MS Desktop will (by default) automatically delete any other window manager executables it finds, converting the Gnome/KDE menus first (i.e. deleting the originals, of course).
By then, you will have three different uninstaller applications on your system (problably in/Program Files/Microsoft/Uninstall/), each of which requires that the other two are deinstalled first... Of course, Microsoft realizes their mistake and announces a press release that they are already planning on thinking about starting to develop a concept for a possible upgrade.
If you actually try to run one of the office apps, it will crash the system hard the moment you start anything like strace, gdb, or anything. Of course, all MS Office applications need to run setuid root, because otherwise they would not be able to "offer all the advanced high-tech e-commerce network industry solution features" they provide. Oh yes, and because they run setuid root, you will have to purchase the "Office 2000 Network Install Update" if you want a network-capable installation, because otherwise everything MS Office saves will be in "/My Document" owned by root.root, no matter which user starts MS Office.
You will not be able to deactive active content in Internet Explorer for any Microsoft site (actually, that's how it is in Windows today, at least on some of the systems I saw), or rather, they will execute no matter what you configure. Internet Explorer will from time to time just forget your homepage and automatically load one of the Windows 2000, MS Office or Windows 98 homepages when you start it. Internet Explorer will also stop loading and crash hard if you start tcpdump or something in a terminal. You will notice frequent DNS requests to activex.microsoft.com, update.microsoft.com and such when running Word or Excel, if you configure your DNS server to log requests. Microsoft will tell people that Office is checking for new versions and upgrades that may be available, thus the DNS requests.
</black_future>
Actually, I myself don't think they will do it as obviously as that. But something in this direction is bound to happen, if Microsoft starts producing applications for Linux. They can only both "embrace and extend", they only start in markets where they can bully/cheat/kick the competition out.
Fortunately, Microsoft still does not seem to have realized the impact that Open Source software has worldwide. Two years ago, the EU would never have dreamed of requesting Windows 2000 source code to check for Diskeeper. Two years ago, France would never have dreamed of suggesting to BAN software in government where no source is available ("for security reasons").
The only way is forward. Choose the right path. Now please give me a good score on this one, I spend a lot of time for the satire and I don't post too often:)
although free Internet access is a nice gesture, nobody is doing anyone a favour here. With local(!) daytime telephone costs of 6pf/min (3/min) for most people most of the time (there are cheaper options, but they are either bundled with buying so many hundred units in advance and only being able to use them during daytime, or other such caveats) nobody is giving anything away.
We don't have any flat rates (there were a couple attempts, but they weren't successful) or _really_ cheap phone rates. Although the Telekom does not have a monopoly any more, it still owns most of the cables - and that makes real competition difficult. So this will not change much - most of todays' ISPs over here charge you by phone bill nowadays anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
If Microsoft finances or owns this kind of database, and it is successful, and many people start using it - how long do you think you will be able to visit this site with Netscape, or Opera?
Long version:
For some years now Microsoft has been sending their people throughout the world collecting data, old arts collections, exclusive online publishing rights from museums and historical sites, and so on. Of course, Microsoft realizes that they cannot hold their monopoly on operating systems forever, and so they are looking for other hooks into the market.
This would not be such a bad thing at all if Microsoft was a fair player. But Microsoft's history has been known to buy, misuse or extinguish new technology just for the sake of forcing new Windows versions and applications into the market (which nobody would actually have needed, if Microsoft hadn't created an artificial "need"). And that is bad.
So: Don't be surprised if in 2001, this 40 Terabyte database tells you you need to install the latest ActiveZ plugins and the latest Internet Explorer 2000 to view the data. And, oh yes - you'll need Microsoft Wallet 2000 of course. It's a free service, after all.
I wouldn't.
</black_vision>
(They cannot port "Office", because Office aka StarOffice, ApplixOffice, WordPerfect Office,.. is already or will soon be available, and not by Microsoft.)
There will be one big binary setup chunk (no RPM or anything, because MS does not/cannot control the RPM format) called "MS Linux installer" that will scatter 1024 files around your /usr/bin, /usr/lib, /usr/share, /var/lib, /home, and /etc directories, even if you select /usr/local/office as destination directory. The "MS Linux installer" will complain that it is incompatible with other package managers and that you might want to only download *.msl packages from linux.microsoft.com for optimum system performance.
There will be an uninstall option that needs a web connection to microsoft.com, and downloads an "uninstaller" (also binary only) that only runs as root. This uninstaller will not work on many systems until after the first "service pack".
Of course, Internet Explorer 5.5 will be included with MS Office 2000 for Linux. You will have to install it "to harvest the real power of Office and to experience all of the advanced features". Internet Explorer will automatically convert your KFM and Netscape bookmarks to IE format (which will be binary, i.e. not easily converted back) and unless you go after "Advanced Install" and uncheck "Options / Internet Explorer / Post-Install Options / Advanced / [x] Autoconvert older browser bookmarks", will delete the original bookmarks. (I witnessed this behaviour on some Netscape installations I've seen - so it's not entirely fiction...)
Internet Explorer will also complain on first start that it is running in an incompatible desktop environment/window manager and that you might want to download "MS Desktop for Linux" as a .msl package from microsoft.com. MS Desktop will (by default) automatically delete any other window manager executables it finds, converting the Gnome/KDE menus first (i.e. deleting the originals, of course).
By then, you will have three different uninstaller applications on your system (problably in /Program Files/Microsoft/Uninstall/), each of which requires that the other two are deinstalled first ... Of course, Microsoft realizes their mistake and announces a press release that they are already planning on thinking about starting to develop a concept for a possible upgrade.
If you actually try to run one of the office apps, it will crash the system hard the moment you start anything like strace, gdb, or anything. Of course, all MS Office applications need to run setuid root, because otherwise they would not be able to "offer all the advanced high-tech e-commerce network industry solution features" they provide. Oh yes, and because they run setuid root, you will have to purchase the "Office 2000 Network Install Update" if you want a network-capable installation, because otherwise everything MS Office saves will be in "/My Document" owned by root.root, no matter which user starts MS Office.
You will not be able to deactive active content in Internet Explorer for any Microsoft site (actually, that's how it is in Windows today, at least on some of the systems I saw), or rather, they will execute no matter what you configure. Internet Explorer will from time to time just forget your homepage and automatically load one of the Windows 2000, MS Office or Windows 98 homepages when you start it. Internet Explorer will also stop loading and crash hard if you start tcpdump or something in a terminal. You will notice frequent DNS requests to activex.microsoft.com, update.microsoft.com and such when running Word or Excel, if you configure your DNS server to log requests. Microsoft will tell people that Office is checking for new versions and upgrades that may be available, thus the DNS requests.
</black_future>
Actually, I myself don't think they will do it as obviously as that. But something in this direction is bound to happen, if Microsoft starts producing applications for Linux. They can only both "embrace and extend", they only start in markets where they can bully/cheat/kick the competition out.
Fortunately, Microsoft still does not seem to have realized the impact that Open Source software has worldwide. Two years ago, the EU would never have dreamed of requesting Windows 2000 source code to check for Diskeeper. Two years ago, France would never have dreamed of suggesting to BAN software in government where no source is available ("for security reasons").
The only way is forward. Choose the right path. Now please give me a good score on this one, I spend a lot of time for the satire and I don't post too often :)
although free Internet access is a nice gesture, nobody is doing anyone a favour here. With local(!) daytime telephone costs of 6pf/min (3/min) for most people most of the time (there are cheaper options, but they are either bundled with buying so many hundred units in advance and only being able to use them during daytime, or other such caveats) nobody is giving anything away.
We don't have any flat rates (there were a couple attempts, but they weren't successful) or _really_ cheap phone rates. Although the Telekom does not have a monopoly any more, it still owns most of the cables - and that makes real competition difficult. So this will not change much - most of todays' ISPs over here charge you by phone bill nowadays anyway.