Articles like this...
|
| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| bigg Jul 02, 2007 8:10 PM EDT |
...don't help us at all. The entire argument boils down to this quote: "If no one is buying ODF-compliant products, no one will develop them. And if no one is developing them, no one will be competing with Microsoft." Maybe I'm mistaken, but isn't ODF in OOo, KOffice, Abiword, and many others? They're all going to disappear? FOSS isn't going anywhere. I have confidence in FOSS and I wish the rest of the community did too. The article reads like a bunch of whiny rambling. Anyone looking for information would either be asleep or taking Microsoft's side by the end of it. |
| dcparris Jul 03, 2007 3:22 PM EDT |
He doesn't seem to argue that the ODF apps will disappear, but that they will be rendered irrelevant. He is simply saying they will never amount to a serious competitive threat to MS. Whether he's right or wrong to be bleak depends, not on whether the ODF apps survive, but whether their uptake is enough to create real competition. The point of ODF is that any app can support it, thus encouraging competition. If MS' format sees wide adoption, there will be no real change in the status quo - still no serious competition in the marketplace. Again, whether and how that plays out will show whether SJVN should be so 'whiny'. |
| dcparris Jul 04, 2007 3:08 PM EDT |
What's the matter, bigg? Cat got your tongue? |
| bigg Jul 05, 2007 6:01 AM EDT |
> Cat got your tongue? Just really busy lately. Not much time to check on the outside world these days. Probably "whiny rambling" was not the best description for his article. I read it hoping to learn something (as I often do when reading SJVN) but instead got a bit of his "it's Microsoft so it has to be bad". > If MS' format sees wide adoption, there will be no real change in the status quo - still no serious competition in the marketplace. But I don't buy into the argument that a low number of users of alternatives means the market is not competitive. In the software industry, there are two things that can prevent an industry from being competitive, the lack of suitable alternatives and switching costs such as the ability of a company to lock your data into a proprietary format. Suitable alternatives do exist, and I can't think of any reason why development on them would stop just because MS has a few people believing they offer an open file format. Let me go out on a limb and predict that OOo will be around for at least ten more years regardless of how the ODF/OOXML battle is resolved. My general complaint about his article is that IMO it reads as if he is grasping at straws in an attempt to find a criticism of Microsoft. It's easy enough to find real complaints against Microsoft (like why OOXML is not really open) that this is not necessary. As I indicated above, I do not think any outsiders would be convinced by the arguments he makes. |
| dcparris Jul 05, 2007 2:03 PM EDT |
I figured Independence Day activities had you pretty busy. I would hate to see OOo/StarOffice 'compete' with MS Office the same way WordPerfect seems to now - by the privileges afforded by Microsoft. Then again, I might be a little pessimistic - or overly sarcastic - on that point myself. |
Posting in this forum is limited to members of the group: [ForumMods, SITEADMINS, MEMBERS.]
Becoming a member of LXer is easy and free. Join Us!