On Mon, 2011-05-02 at 05:28 +0000, [email protected] wrote: > On May 1, 2011 9:39pm, Stuart Jansen <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Sun, 2011-05-01 at 21:11 -0600, S. Dale Morrey wrote: > > > I dunno, I think it's apropos. It really is a pain in the butt to work > > > with. > > > > If this is a persistent problem, you might want to see a doctor. > > This is one of the strangest things I have ever seen: a member of a LINUX > user's group defending M$ Office format.
I didn't realize I was defending the format or anything else, but since you mentioned it... Of course the historical MS Office format is crap, but there were good reasons for it. Loading serialized data structures off disk is much faster than parsing giant piles of fetid XML. Nevermind that when Word was created, XML was still just a demented gleam in the eye of a committee that hadn't even been formed yet. Almost all of us have passed through an anti-MS, pro-Linux fanboy phase. But that doesn't mean that we still enjoy the same old boring and immature behavior. While I find it painful to spend any significant amount of time interacting with Windows or Word, the fact is that Microsoft has done many things right. They provided the right features at the right time at the right price to capture the majority of the market. Only an idiot disrespects a powerful opponent. If you consider Linux to be part of some righteous F/OSS battle against proprietary software, don't be an idiot. Respect and study your opponent. Don't just look for weaknesses, look for and learn from the strengths. The Free Software Foundation has made itself a joke by its childish behavior. Don't let the harm spread. Reject childish taunts like M$, Microshaft, Internet Exploder, and other equally lame crap. /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
