Yes, the disadvantage that MS Office 2007 has an extremely restricted,
basically non-existent, choice of platforms also applies to earlier
versions. That doesn't make the further reduction any more acceptable or
helpful. That is one of the reasons why MSO is no longer suitable for
business environments, or for that matter home or school.
OOo, on the other hand, runs on many architectures and platforms. So if
your business says Debian on PPC, Fedora on x86-64 or OpenBSD or ARM, it
doesn't matter.
The ties to MS Sharepoint, last I checked, required either using a local
server including having purchased (rented) the appropriate number of CALs,
or else using remote servers at MS HQ.
Isn't it able to save to DOC for the rare cases when that's needed?
Don't parrot that myth. DOC is not a single format, it's about a dozen
and a half. Regardless, it doesn't matter because the default format for
MSO 2007 is DOCX which is *not backwards compatible*.
As others have or will point out, none of the older versions of MS Office
can read DOCX, nor can the renaissance of non-MS productivity
applications. It has been exactly that forced obsolence which drove most
of the earlier sales of MS Office. Fortunately, MSO 2003 died on the
vine, never achieving much above 10%-15% market penetration.
Anyway, OpenOffice.org seems to have better interoperability with the old
versions of the formats than the expensive, new, and difficult to use MSO
2007.
Though an increasing number of governments are explicitly requiring
OpenDocument, either by name or by requirments, the World Trade
Organization treaties on Government Procurement and on Technical Barriers
to Trade lay the foundation. Those two treaties require use of
international standards and, as defined in Directive 98/34.
So again, just because a liability is present in multiple versions of MS
Office, doesn't make the problem any more acceptable or helpful. That
includes lack of OpenDocument (ISO/IEC 23600) support, which is a must-
have.
Interoperability can also be achieved via monopoly. See MS Office's success.
In the same way, rats are successful. Cockroaches are successful, too.
If by success you mean market share, then you're quite right. If by
success, you mean the ability to exchange documents between different
versions, then you seem to have slept through the last 15 years.
Forced obsolence has been the driving factor in the earlier sales of MS
Office. In otherwords, the new formats, like DOCX, don't work with the
old programs. I'm not sure of any way to spin that into a description of
interoperability.
-Lars
Lars Noodén ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
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