On 10/9/2010 2:33 PM, Bill Campbell wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 08, 2010, Les Mikesell wrote:
>> On 10/8/10 5:55 PM, Warren Young wrote:
> ...
>>> Y'all may recall a different example: Word Perfect was also once offered
>>> on Linux for about a year, then pulled. OpenOffice wasn't even around
>>> at the time, so you can't blame competition. Corel had a near open
>>> field to play in, and still couldn't make a buck.
>> Did you ever try that product? Even free it wouldn't have been a win against
>> Word on Windows - which was getting bundled on most new PCs at the time anyway.
> Au contraire, In September 1997 when we installed our first Linux system in
> a mission-critical position, it was in a law office as a file and print
> server for a bunch of Windows machines. The office manager was bitching
> mightily that their productivity dropped by about 50% when they were forced
> to use MS-Word instead of WordPerfect. These were very good legal
> secretaries who hated having to reach for a mouse to do anything, and loved
> the ``Reveal Codes'' ability in WordPerfect.
>
> I had to laugh one day when I got a phone call where the caller's first
> words were ``I want Reveal Codes''.
Yes!!! Reveal Codes is one of the very best things in WordPerfect. (yes,
I do have PerfectOffice installed, but I cannot rely on it as at any
point in time a Windoze update might render it useless) As for Perfect
Office, Quattro can run circles around Excel when it comes to huge data
files. Quattro's formula builder is totally logical and 'easy' vs. the
convoluted Excel counterpart. All you have to do is look at 'history'.
WordPerfect and Netscape are two prime examples. WordPerfect was
becoming the defacto standard. Anybody remember WordStar? Most colleges
were using WP and from the schools, you leave using what you learned on.
Suddenly, every new computer came with Microsoft Windows installed 'and'
a free install of Microsoft Office. Slowly, everyone stopped 'paying
for' WP. Duh.... Netscape, same deal... free MSIE.
Aside from this, Microsoft seems to love to make changes that break
other vendor's software. I can't imagine the frustrations they must feel
living in this world. WordPerfect, Adobe and just about everyone has had
problems due to some 'upgrade' that broke something in their software.
Adobe DW CS3 has a seriously broken browse to directory problem right
now and they don't plan to fix it. This occurred during one of the
service pack updates. Yet it seems Adobe has bowed to the might MS. If
you click on email this in Acrobat, it opens Outlook in spite of it not
being set as the default on the system. Need a spell checker in certain
high end CAD programs, you have to install MSOffice?
Somehow, I get the feeling that everytime Microsoft chooses to do
something, at the top of their list is this question. "How can this
benefit more sales of Microsoft products and how can this negatively
impact our perceived competition?" Anybody remember OS2? Yeah it worked
for a while, then Microsoft made 'changes'. Even IBM couldn't devote the
resources into chasing the moving target.
Sort of the same with WordPerfect and still is. We used to have a great
working method for opening MSOffice docs in WP. Mostly gone at the
moment, but supposedly back again in the latest release, but how long
will that work and at what point will we lose the ability leaving us in
'broken state' in terms of doing business? Or, just give in and switch
to MSO. It doesn't take much for business owners to switch... right or
wrong.
And, the final most obvious point. In the real world of business,
Perfect Office is pretty much dead. OpenOffice is not a viable solution
any more than Perfect Office. Since Microsoft has won this war, what has
happened? Has anybody looked at the new Microsoft Office 2010 Pro
package, or for that matter all Office 2010 releases? There are no
longer any 'Upgrade' packages. You are now forced to buy the full
version package at full version pricing. So now MSO Pro 2010 is like
$450. Yes, I do feel as though they have over the years slowly bent my
back over to where they finally have me in 'the position'. Yes now I'm
stuck with MSO 2007, which has the worst nav system ever created, but I
had to have it to handle files coming in from customers if they were
docx and so on. And now I suppose I'll be forced into 2010 for some
reason I don't know yet, but to accommodate my clients who move to it.
Meanwhile, I bet there is some 'new wonderful feature' that will prevent
Perfect Office or Open Office from being able to open something created
in some certain way in MSO 2010, although this is just my speculation.
Thanks to CentOS, I am not being forced into this position with regards
to our servers and hope to never be forced into installing a Winders
server ever, ever ever.... I do admire Microsoft's business philosophy,
although I don't condone such and I could not sleep at night if I
operated using those methods. I never feel good when I buy any of their
products as I feel I am just supporting the immoral. But yes, I am stuck
using Winders, as much of the software I must run is only written for
Windows. All I can say is GO Google and Android! We might yet again have
an alternative? Cloud computing is going to have serious impacts on
bloatware. We may have a new corner to round in the next decade.
Did I ever mention I'm not really happy with Micro$oft?
John Hinton
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