M. Fioretti wrote:
On Sat, Oct 16, 2010 13:22:44 PM -0400, Wm Stewart
([email protected]) wrote:
b. Solving compatibility is under the community's control
NO. It isn't. By definition. Because it's not the community that
controls when the secret formats it's trying to catch will stop moving
and changing. UNLESS you limit this game to version of the formats
that no MS user produces anymore, surely not .docx. And even in that
case it would still require a very big effort
Here I have to disagree with Marco just a bit, Microsoft CANNOT change
formats just any time they feel like it, because their customers won't
accept that. A good example is Windows Vista which was a commercial
failure* because it changed things that customers didn't want
changed. So what happened, thousands of companies refused to buy Vista
and stayed with Windows XP. While I am just a small scale system
builder, over the years I have built slightly less than a thousand
computers. Of those only 1 had Vista on it. I tried Vista and hated it
so much I took it off of my own machine and went back to XP.
I am using an older version of Thunderbird (2.0.0.24) because I
hated the recent versions, and it seemed that every time they changed it
I liked it even less than the last version. I also refuse to update my
copy of OOo because I refuse to loose my personal spelling dictionary.
I doubt that I will upgrade until version 4.0 Unless at some point the
developers get a version that doesn't trash your settings changes and
additions when you upgrade.
*Allowing for what MS spent to develop and promote Vista, and what
revenue they would likely have made from XP if they had kept it the
current product until the release of Win 7.
We've been at this discussion for years now. I believe evidence
trumps opinion.
Bill,
at this point, what *I* see as evidence and believe in good faith is
that you're surely a great person with good intentions, but if you
don't understand what I've written 3 times today in shorter and
shorter sentences you shouldn't engage in certain discussions. I can't
get past this conclusion.
Maybe I'm totally right, maybe I'm totally wrong because my own brain
is limited. So be it. Don't worry about it because I really have no
time or wish to continue this discussion. I'll do my best to ignore
any other message in this thread. Have a nice weekend.
Marco
