Chad,
On Mar 22 14:36PM, Chad Smith wrote:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Group,
I'm tired of people sending me Microsoft Office files. This is a threat to my freedom and my bank account:
Um, it's not touching your bank account. OOo opens them. OOo is free. It's not costing you a penny to use the MSO files.
OOo opens them because smart developers have reverse engineered them. The companies are actively trying to eliminate this by patenting use of XML and by pushing ``trusted computing''. If they prevail, and if customers continue to merrily upgrade, programs like OOo will find it harder and harder (if no impossible) to interoperate.
It's still not touching *your* bank account. It may be touching Sun's accounts, but not yours. Opening a Word Doc file in your copy of OOo doesn't cost you a penny. And until OOo stops working with MSO files, it won't cost you a penny. It's not corrupting your data, costing you any time, or charging you a cent.
On Linux, OOo, KOffice, AbiWord, AntiWord, etc., etc. all open and edit to varying degrees MSO files. You don't have to give Redmond a thin dime to use their file formats. If somehow OOo disappeared tomorrow, you'd still have complete and full access to MSO files, regardless of your operating system, and you still wouldn't have to pay Bill Gates anything.
If the entire Open Source movement disappeared overnight you could still live a Microsoft free existance while using MS Office formats - Buy a Mac with AppleWorks, or iWork, or Word Perfect for Mac. I believe MS even provides free MSO viewers for Mac, although I'm not sure about that.
I propose that we stop accepting such files.
Feel free. If you have to exchange files for your job, you'll most likely lose a lot of customers.
Are my customers unable to install a gratis program on their computer? Won't my customers have more money in their pockets if they use gratis software, thus allowing them but purchase more of my services/products?
Why should they have to? I mean, they already have MSO or some other program that creates MSO format files (and there are plenty of them out there), so downloading OOo isn't going to save them anything. You are forcing them to do work in order to deal with you. You are forcing them to give up control of their computer in order to work with you. I doubt customers would resent that, not very long, anyway. They'd just take their business and their money elsewhere.
Forcing someone to install something is a Bad Move (tm). The people who send you MSO files aren't forcing you to install anything. You already have OOo to open, edit, and save those files. They haven't cost you a thing.
They have already spent the money that they are going to spend on MSO. Installing OOo will not in any way help them get it back (didn't get me any refunds). They won't have any more money to give to you at all.
Think long term.
Well, okay, long term I would wait until OOo 2.0 to do anything, since the file format will be completely different. You start sending SXI files this week, forcing people to download OOo 1.1.4, then in a couple months they start getting .oot files from you, and have to install OOo 2.0.... Just wait until 2.0.
I'm all for letting them know of alternatives to MSO. I'm even for letting them know about OOo. But your idea of making them use it to work with you is not cool.
Think about it this way. They could be using one of a hundred programs out there that create MSO files - including OOo. You send them a sxi file - only OOo will open it. Maybe AbiWord will, but that's it. In a very practical way, you are actually severely *LIMITING* their freedom by making them use OOo's formats. While they, by using a format virtually every word processing program in the world can use - MS's Word DOC file - are allowing you the freedom to pick not only your office suite, but your OS as well.
I'm on a Mac right now. A Mac OS 9.22. There is no program on earth that will edit or even open OOo files on my computer - unless I want to crack open the hexidecimal and hard code the format in a text editor. If you sent me a OOo file, I couldn't do a thing with it. But, if you sent me a Word Document, I could open it in MS Word 2001 for Mac - or in AppleWorks - or in a number of other word processors for Mac.
The point is, politics aside, MSO file formats are for more "open" than OOo formats. More programs use them. More OSes use them. Anybody with a computer can use them. Not true with OOo's formats.
Isn't it cheaper to pay for the bandwidth to download OOo (or pay for the CD, etc.) than to upgrade to the next series of Microsoft Office releases?
Maybe to upgrade, yes, but not to keep what they got. To use what they've been using doesn't cost them a thing.
-Chad Smith
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