On 20 Mar 99, Lars-Einar Jansson wrote :
> At least this is a case where MS should be praised, not bashed. I
> think this shows a concern for their customers not having the very
> latest version of Word and it also gives everyone else, who don't want
> to use Word, an opportunity to read Word-documents.
Another way to look at is this: If some one sends me a MS-WORD file,
and I complain about the format, they can always tell me to go
fetch the word viewer - after all it's free, so why complain? Hey,
I've even heard people use this as an argument to allow sending
Word formatted text to mailing lists (sic), arguing that a) everyone
have Word (not true of course) b) thus its file format comprise a
de facto standard (in part true, to long to get into here) and finally
c) those who do not own a copy of Word can always go fetch the free
viewers from MS (true but very annoying, since I would have to pay for
the download and fire up the word viewer just to read my mail. Besides,
they never made a Word viewer for DOS AFAIK)
Put differently, without the viewers in place, MS would have had a more
difficult time selling their word processor and achieving their current
market position. Also, when MS change their own file formats, from say
Word 2 to Word 6, or to 97 or now 2000, they fend off a lot of angry
customers by offering free viewers. In other words, offering a viewer
for free can bee seen as just another step taken to win more market
segments. Nothing wrong about that, but it doesn't actually smell like
a concern for their customers in any altruistic meaning of the word.
All the best,
Bjorn
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