[KLUG Members] Re: Calling all Linux novices: -- standards, proprietary standards and neither ...

[Bryan J. Smith]

Quoting "Robert G. Brown" <bob@acm.org>:
> Pick any proprietary file format, and you can
> build a case study of how it effects (distorts?) the market.
> ... and cases made in the second thread can be based on many
> formats and their associated packages or package families.

There are proprietary software with standards,
Then there are proprietary software with proprietary standards.
Microsoft Office is _neither_.

People ignorantly state, "Microsoft Office is an industry standard."

And I argue back, "For Microsoft Office to be an industry standard, it has to be
at least a proprietary standard.  And a proprietary standard must be at least
compatible with its own proprietary software.  Since it is not, it can't be an
industry standard.  It is a proprietary non-standard that either costs companies
major TCO maintaining documentation investments more than 2-3 years, or they
simply forfeit it."

It's _extremely_humorous_ that we just had this thread yesterday.  I have just
been "forced" to upgrade to Access 2000 at work.  My "mission critical" Access
97 database that stores account information for ~150 major Disney partners
(banks, subsidaries, etc...) will _not_ convert up to Access 2000.  I didn't
write it either, but it's too important to ignore this problem.  So I'll be
_damned_ if I'm going to re-create the new version in Access 2000!!!

So will someone please remind me what would be so "great" about an MS Office for
Linux?  [ Especially those who haven't used the MacOS ports ;-> ]


-- 
Bryan J. Smith, E.I. (BSECE)       Contact Info:  http://thebs.org
[ http://thebs.org/files/resume/BryanJonSmith_certifications.pdf ]
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Microsoft states Linux's GPL is "viral" so I guess all the authors
in the US who require you to pay royalties to print their books
must be the digital "black plague."  Copyright is copyright and
the GPL prevents commercial use without a license from the holder.