On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 1:06 PM, Scott Granneman <[email protected]> wrote:
>> As for reading and creating ODF files, OOo is just one of many
>> options.  If you can't open it with MS Office and can't install OOo,
>> then go the cloud route with Google docs, which reads/writes ODF, MS
>> Office, RTF, HTML, and text.  So there really isn't a need for an ODF
>> plug-in for MS Office.  If Oracle can get away with charging $90 for
>> it, good for them.  If the plug-in dies a market death, no big loss.
>
> $90 seems quite excessive & greedy to me, so I hope it dies.

And maybe Oracle hopes so, too, which is why they priced it at $90.
Or maybe Oracle discovered that Sun was paying licensing fees in
excess of $90 a pop to MS and decided to pass those costs on.
Unfortunately, we'll never know the "real" reason.  But it doesn't
really matter.

> I don't think it will TOTALLY be in the cloud (but who knows?), but a
> lot will definitely be there. Now we have the Internet, which we
> didn't have before, & we're getting closer all the time to ubiquitous
> access. Apple's recent deal with AT&T re: iPad 3G access is a
> harbinger of that. As for control, close to 100% of my students have
> their email in the cloud, & they could care less about control,
> because they have something far more important to them: access.

I have a hard time considering WashU students as a representative
sampling of the general population.  I'd think of them as more on the
leading-edge of the curve.

> In fact, WU is moving ALL students over to Microsoft's hosted email this
> year (which sucks, but oh well). Remember the old adage that when
> given a choice between security and convenience, people pick
> convenience every time? When given a choice between control and
> access, they pick access, almost every time.

I agree.  Cloud computing is like ATM cards about 20 years ago -
present, but a rarity.  Now?  Almost ubiquitous.  Although, there's
still a good size of the population that still buys groceries and
services with cash.  Hang around the Customer Service counter at
Schnuck's on a Friday afternoon to see what I mean.  I guess it's
something about feeling that big wad of paper in your hands.

Regards,
- Robert

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