On 9/18/07, Rick Schummer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > ...But didn't you and *others* smack me around hard about CHOICE!
Not hard enough, apparently. Feel free to flail, Rick. CHOICE is good. You can use OpenOffice.org or you can use KWrite or you can use AbiWord. These are different programs, have different features and offer a CHOICE. Three different versions of OpenOffice.org that are the same engine with different tailfins are like a vendor offering six different versions of their Operating Systems that have different features disabled. Who'd be dumb enough to buy into a scheme like that <g,d&R>? > Or did I not understand you right? Still learning, grasshopper. > You can't have it both ways. <gd&r> Sure I can. And you can, too. That's a CHOICE. The world is full of conflicting truisms. "The unexamined life is not worth living" is no less true than "Ignorance is bliss." (Tip of the hat to Robert Fulgham). Both are true. You can't help but have it both ways. Choice is Good. Choice is Confusing. Both are True. As I tried to express, but obviously didn't spell out clearly enough... it's great the OpenOffice.org is getting more support from IBM and will be used by more people. I'm a little disappointed and surprised that IBM chose to private-label it. (Although they do something similar with Domino Community Edition, which I think is the same as the Apache Project Geronimo under a different name, too). I don't know much about IBM and their products. The good news is that they have a CHOICE to do this. I'd like to learn more details than I could glean from the press release. SunOffice has additional translation modules and dictionaries than are included in the free OpenOffice.org version. And corporate support. And a wicked-good discount program for schools and non-profits. I'll be interested in seeing what IBM offers. Even though Dell OEMs the OS (and you have to go back to Dell for support), Microsoft prevents Dell from labeling their OS anything other than Windows, even though you don't get the same level of support as you would from a Redmond-based "Windows." Differentiating different products with different names is Good. Eclipse is the great counter-example. I'm running Aptana RadRails (a plug-in to Eclipse) that they private-label. The company formerly known as Borland shipped ThirdRail this week, another private labeled Eclipse with plug-ins and customizations. Is this Choice? Yes. Is this Confusing? Yes. Is this Good? Yes, and no. Fedora ships a version of Eclipse that appears to be the same as the others, but I've discovered they compiled theirs with GCJ, back in the bad old days when Java was proprietary. So, their "Eclipse" is not the same as other "Eclipses" and plug-ins which might work with one might not be so compatible with the other. That's Bad. So, little in life is as simple as Good and Bad. Except maybe MAPI Bad, SMTP Good. -- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
