On Thursday 31 May 2001 03:14 pm, Internet Niue wrote:
Please don't get me wrong. I lament this state of affairs as much as anyone here. The only solution I can see is a new antitrust action that would force Microsoft to publish its data formats for all Office products 90 days before releasing any new ones and would explicitly permit anyone else to use them.
Paul
Hey Paul,
The other approach might be that Linux needs to have a split in it's users....so that there is a community of gurus who do servers and all kinds of whacky stuff......and then a separate community of Linux users who are desktop users.
I'm not suggesting a *division* really, but more of a way to allow new users who just want to be desktop users, a different community to build and learn and gear the hardware and installations toward that end.
In my opinion, the only way Linux is going to get strong enough to hold itself together against MS is that it needs millions and millions more desktop users.
We already have the guru community. But the sad fact is, the guru community is not the preponderance of the user out there, and most of the time the guru isn't who makes the decision to form a standard. People who sit around polished tables do that. And as long as they keep putting things like:
"The document standard for [corporation name] until further notice will be Microsoft Word format".
Uh, well. That's the way it's gonna go.
(that's an actual standards quote from a giant corporation in San Jose-who's name I won't mention because you would all know it).
But if linux got so easy to install and use [for the desktop user] that the guys sitting around the polished table were running linux in their laptops and on their desks, then it would all turn around.
I think it's getting there. But just for the sake of discussion and comment, and thinking about it, I just thought I would throw that out there.
I'm going to take something that you said here, and shine some light on it. <SHINE>
But if linux got so easy to install and use [for the desktop user] that the guys sitting around the polished table were running linux in their laptops and on their desks, then it would all turn around. </SHINE>
Yep, that's what I thought you said. So let's bring this a little further out... why is "Microsoft Word" the standard? Because "everybody" runs it. Well, what happens when not "everybody" is running Word anymore? Maybe a new standard will emerge. Maybe Star[Open] Office's Star Writer or KWord's format will emerge as the "standard", once a ton more people are using Linux. I'm very much looking forward to seeing that happen :-) Have a great day! -Steven