<quote who="Con Zymaris"> > I see no 'mind-blowingly irrational rage'. What I offered is (I believe)
8< snip ... I wasn't referring exclusively to your post (or even just the discussion among these lists). > > Why has OpenOffice.org succeeded to the degree it has thus far? Well, > > it's not software quality, innovation or user delight. :-) It's > > *compatible* and cheap and therefore viable to play with and then > > ultimately continue using. > > Times are different. With liberal application of rose-coloured glasses, sure. They're really not that different, unless we're feeling self-aggrandising and self-righteous. > This inertia is compounded by the lacklustre uptake of Vista, and the > perception across the industry that Microsft has hatched two turkeys, and > not one. For sure. And that's awesome. But to think that means that we can further retard its growth by not implementing the Office 2007 formats is goofy at best. What we need is mind-blowingly awesome products (which, sadly, OOo is not), and demonstrable user value (which, sadly, ODF doesn't exactly speak to very convincingly, at least for 'normal users' who just want to get on with things). > Unlike that time, there is now an additional group of users, > OpenOffice.org users, who can provide enough of a critical mass of > non-OOXML users to help ensure that OOXML never gains the mantle of > industry dominance that its predecessor did. There's a David with growing strength, a Goliath tripping over his own shoe laces, and a market that is not particularly impressed or interested in either. Again: We don't "win" by boycotting the opportunity to steal Microsoft's customers from them. Doesn't matter whether they're waxing or waning from their current position. It just doesn't make any sense at all. ... and, of course, that's why pretty much all of their competitors -- FLOSS or not, ODF backers or not -- are already (wisely) implementing it in some form, which makes this entirely political and hypothetical argument moot. - Jeff -- linux.conf.au 2008: Melbourne, Australia http://lca2008.linux.org.au/ "I think it was Shakespeare who said -- or it might have been Joss Whedon. I get those two mixed up..." - Mike Lawther -- ubuntu-au mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au
