It wouldn't totally surprise me, but I doubt it's "easily fixable". Microsoft has spend years and billions developing office. It's no trivial task to write a program that implements all of it's features correctly. Look at HTML for example. Even with a published spec, HTML renders differently on different browsers. And there's no published spec for MS office docs.
you are totally missing very important facts.
microsoft didnt spent billions of $ and years to develop office. they spent them to develop office, windows versions, AND to make sure that everyone stays tied to their products. this is the reason why office, windows versions are still too backwards in comparison to the effort/cash spent on them. its still going on with vista, and even now xp, you know, they are making changes to the xp code without people's info or consent. instead of bettering their product, they are going for control, since they were founded.
now see the opposite. mozilla firefox, thunderbird, numerable o/s projects. despite lack of funding, despite centralization, despite little investment, they have succeeded major strides in comparison to what ms products did with the investment they got.
this is due to a sole reason - if you make something more open, it goes forward. check the concept of PC.
pc is just an alias for ibm pc compatibles. ibm pc is ibm's personal computer brand. what did they do, you proabably know. instead of barring people, they allowed, encouraged and licensed that everyone produced stuff for it, even the PC concept itself. so today we have an IBM PC in front of all of us. (others are minority still).
enter openoffice, and bolstered effort with ibm.
openness goes forward rule NEVER failed during the course of history. it will succeed again.
u.s. economy going upside down. u.s. dollar is at an all time low. u.s. is bad-boy of international community. there are 'better' performing countries, economic unions, international organizations everywhere.
yet, u.s. is still the biggest player on the face of the earth.
#1) There are millions of MS Office documents out there, which OpenOffice doesn't always read correctly, especially powerpoint. The cost of switching is almost certainly prohibitive. Oh, wait. Office 2007 documents aren't backwards compatible without a patch, which many organizations don't allow you to download. Forget about #1.
easily fixable through an importer thats probably gonna come along shortly with the aid of ibm developers
#2) Millions of workers already know how to use MS Office. Though the differences in menu organization man seem superficial to I.T. people, they're monumental to other users. Oh, wait. Office 2007 totally reorganizes everything, making I.T. people and other users alike curse the day Bill Gates was born. Forget about #2.
ditto. interface changes, more user friendliness will fix that.
#3) Say what you like about Windows and Microsoft's business practices, but Microsoft Office is actually a really good product that works. It's not perfect, but it's still faster and better than OpenOffice. Oh, wait, Office 2007 screwed all that up too.
the only good product that works was xp, and now microsoft is turning it to a backdoor/trojan. unacceptable for a business's privacy, and info.
of course all businesses use windows and office, and they will be using them still after the openoffice revolution.
we are a small software shop, yet we still use windows xp and office for this and that. you still have them handy in case compatibility requires them for any occasion.
I ditched wow and gone lotro. For the first time in a long duration, im having fun in a mmo. A catching story, easy come easy go playstyle, nice environment, gorgeous graphics. So such games can still be made.
I'm not sure how you can support that claim. Pretty much all businesses today are heavily reliant on Windows and Office. I suspect a rather small proportion of all businesses use IBM kit, and I suspect that nearly all of those that do are medium-sized or large businesses, not the small businesses that drive economies.
being reliant and choosing are 2 different things. they are reliant on ms stuff because it was the only source that seemed to be reliable enough and offered solutions.
now ibm is in the market. ibm is much older and bigger than microsoft. therefore much more reliable as per its history. businesses may hesitate about linux, open source, but when sources like ibm back them its a whole different story.
in the past, ibm was for big business. ms was medium and small businesses' friend.
with this move, ibm, who is still the friend of the big businesses is pushing forward something that is more flexible and cheap - open office. it is free and it is going to get so much flexibility with modules, 3rd party apps and so that its going to be a blast of flexibility.
many big businesses happily using something that is free and they can control means that any small to medium businesses doing business with them will feel compelled, even felt necessary to use the same suite in regard to ease and compatibility.
then, so long microsoft, in regard to office suite.
ibm is a much more trusted source in the eyes of all sizes of businesses. its joining the open office movement have made the movement pass the critical mass. now open office and variants are practically de facto office suites of future.
I'm a little too social to be a geek. I never developed the requisite disdain for people. Also, I shower. So I have that "against" me as well. I do have the intelligence, I just happened to pick up other traits geeks don't seem to have.
traits like self-contradiction, i presume ?
in addition to buying into stereotypes that are propagated by ignorant, witless people.
about intelligence, im not even going to say anything. im speechless.
all i can say in the end is that you have to reevaluate many things.
Slashdot Mirror
you are totally missing very important facts.
microsoft didnt spent billions of $ and years to develop office. they spent them to develop office, windows versions, AND to make sure that everyone stays tied to their products. this is the reason why office, windows versions are still too backwards in comparison to the effort/cash spent on them. its still going on with vista, and even now xp, you know, they are making changes to the xp code without people's info or consent. instead of bettering their product, they are going for control, since they were founded.
now see the opposite. mozilla firefox, thunderbird, numerable o/s projects. despite lack of funding, despite centralization, despite little investment, they have succeeded major strides in comparison to what ms products did with the investment they got.
this is due to a sole reason - if you make something more open, it goes forward. check the concept of PC.
pc is just an alias for ibm pc compatibles. ibm pc is ibm's personal computer brand. what did they do, you proabably know. instead of barring people, they allowed, encouraged and licensed that everyone produced stuff for it, even the PC concept itself. so today we have an IBM PC in front of all of us. (others are minority still).
enter openoffice, and bolstered effort with ibm.
openness goes forward rule NEVER failed during the course of history. it will succeed again.
lets make an analogy :
u.s. economy going upside down. u.s. dollar is at an all time low. u.s. is bad-boy of international community. there are 'better' performing countries, economic unions, international organizations everywhere.
yet, u.s. is still the biggest player on the face of the earth.
i think you got my meaning.
new paypal is all roses compared to old midwestern crooks.
corel is not ibm. google is not ibm. ibm is THE ibm. the god damn ibm that the concept of PC came from. its IBM PC compatibles in fact, not pc.
you really do not have a grasp of what scale is ibm at.
easily fixable through an importer thats probably gonna come along shortly with the aid of ibm developers
#2) Millions of workers already know how to use MS Office. Though the differences in menu organization man seem superficial to I.T. people, they're monumental to other users. Oh, wait. Office 2007 totally reorganizes everything, making I.T. people and other users alike curse the day Bill Gates was born. Forget about #2.
ditto. interface changes, more user friendliness will fix that.
#3) Say what you like about Windows and Microsoft's business practices, but Microsoft Office is actually a really good product that works. It's not perfect, but it's still faster and better than OpenOffice. Oh, wait, Office 2007 screwed all that up too.
the only good product that works was xp, and now microsoft is turning it to a backdoor/trojan. unacceptable for a business's privacy, and info.
Harrasment Act is ?
either not, or he is paid well. by whom, you know.
STILL stiff neck and scheming up until the end.
lawyers of this company should be hanged in order to prevent more exploits in u.s. legal system.
fraud is the biggest problem of paypal. here we have an anti fraud org under attack by fraudsters.
paypal under ebay is not stupid as the old paypal to not understand the importance of this, and not defend the enemy of its enemy.
of course all businesses use windows and office, and they will be using them still after the openoffice revolution.
we are a small software shop, yet we still use windows xp and office for this and that. you still have them handy in case compatibility requires them for any occasion.
its the general use that matters.
yet, this for now seems like radiation poisoning, with headache, vomitting and such.
it wont hurt to have more customer-oriented, people-targeting companies on the web
its more than enough for a game.
many people on this thread prove to the contrary.
remember, crazy people built our current technological infrastructure. you should be one too.
im not going to comment on the lack of foresight and vision in the latter parts of your comment.
I ditched wow and gone lotro. For the first time in a long duration, im having fun in a mmo. A catching story, easy come easy go playstyle, nice environment, gorgeous graphics. So such games can still be made.
it will change. remember, ibm is a major company that provides solutions to many governments.
i dont think that among the "movers and shakers" there is a single one with a butt large enough to diss or dismiss ibm.
being reliant and choosing are 2 different things. they are reliant on ms stuff because it was the only source that seemed to be reliable enough and offered solutions.
now ibm is in the market. ibm is much older and bigger than microsoft. therefore much more reliable as per its history. businesses may hesitate about linux, open source, but when sources like ibm back them its a whole different story.
at least ibm doesnt try to wrest control of MY pc at my OWN home/office out of my hands. thats what i care about.
Let me put it this way,
in the past, ibm was for big business. ms was medium and small businesses' friend.
with this move, ibm, who is still the friend of the big businesses is pushing forward something that is more flexible and cheap - open office. it is free and it is going to get so much flexibility with modules, 3rd party apps and so that its going to be a blast of flexibility.
many big businesses happily using something that is free and they can control means that any small to medium businesses doing business with them will feel compelled, even felt necessary to use the same suite in regard to ease and compatibility.
then, so long microsoft, in regard to office suite.
ibm is a much more trusted source in the eyes of all sizes of businesses. its joining the open office movement have made the movement pass the critical mass. now open office and variants are practically de facto office suites of future.
first time i saw that. im not much into web comics.
traits like self-contradiction, i presume ?
in addition to buying into stereotypes that are propagated by ignorant, witless people.
about intelligence, im not even going to say anything. im speechless.
all i can say in the end is that you have to reevaluate many things.
if you are not a geek yourself, what the hell are you doing here ...
instead YOU have stolen our hearts, as ./ers, liberals, geeks, open source people and such.
what are you going to do about that ?