Actually it would be a more convincing comparison if we could persuade Microsoft to part with download numbers for Microsoft Office ;)
Just to drive it in that _our_ distribution is Internet-and-friend-based, while theirs is anything but ... ! Wesley Parish On Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:59, Ian Lynch wrote: > On Fri, 2005-10-21 at 19:04 -0400, Chad Smith wrote: > > Show me some evidence - and it should be more than just "download > > numbers" since I have personally downloaded OOo about 75 times. > > And I have downloaded it perhaps 10 times but burnt and given out > hundreds of discs. There is always going to be uncertainty in statistics > but one thing is for sure, year on year there are more OOo users. I know > you have a problem with rates of change, but really they are much better > predictors of the future than raw numbers. Rates of change involve a > time dimension and the future is time related. Take up follows > predictable patterns. These are well docmented. Slow but accelerating > start followed by a sustained more linear rate follwed by saturation and > then decay. > > MSO has followed this pattern in terms of market share, particularly if > you look at rate of take of new product rather than installed base. The > rate of take up of new product is slowing because people are not > upgrading from previous versions. The interesting thing to know would be > to what extent OOo users are people moving from older versions of MSO > and other products or people who would have bought new licenses for > Office2003. If its the former, MS sales figures will not be affected > much buy OOo in the short term but of course the confidence in OOo will > grow and grow storing up a very sudden and nasty surprise for MS some > time in the future when suddenly people realise what everyone else is > doing. If OOo is taking new users from Office2003 MS will see lower than > predicted sales. My guess and its only a guess is that its probably a > combination but very difficult to be sure where the balance lies. > > Still life would be boring if everything was predictable with absolute > certainty. -- Clinersterton beademung, with all of love - RIP James Blish ----- Mau e ki, he aha te mea nui? You ask, what is the most important thing? Maku e ki, he tangata, he tangata, he tangata. I reply, it is people, it is people, it is people. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
