Today, Bruce McCulley gleaned this insight:
> Aw, come on Rich, cut them some slack.
>
> If we're going to take over the business market we're going to have to
> compromise religious purity in favor of practical economics.
Er...
> They've got a business to run, making money means being pragmatic and
> using the lowest cost tools - even if they are legacy apps - if
> they've been in business for awhile M$ tools were the defacto choice
> not many years back, and the cost of converting is a relatively low
> ROI. For that matter, if I right now today want to set up a simple
> office system to do the tasks M$ Office is intended to do, what is the
> relative cost to do so in Linux vs. M$? Since I can buy a PC with M$
> Office preloaded, any added cost to convert to Linux is tough to
> justify economically, unless you can show a lower total cost of
> ownership (training and support) and I'll bet there aren't compelling
> numbers to be found there yet.
I don't disagree with anything you said here. But what I have never been
able to understand is why it would be necessary to launch MS-Word to write
a five-line e-mail about a job posting ( or *anything* for that matter)
and attach it to your e-mail, when it would be less work and less
time-consuming to simply type it in your e-mail client, whatever it may
be, and send it directly. It just makes no sense, and bloats the e-mail
ridiculously. And just exactly what is wrong with Internet-standard ASCII
text? Why should I, the recipient, be forced to launch some lame, bloated
application (microsoft or otherwise) just to read a five-line e-mail?
In practice, the answer is, I don't. The e-mail goes unread. As did this
one.
I have to agree with Rich here. But then, you all knew I would... :)
> I'd certainly rather see us encourage M$ shops that show some
> awareness and sensitivity to Linux rather than flaming them.
I agree, but this post did not indicate any sensitivity to linux, in my
opinion... the vast majority of Linux users, in my experience, have little
use (note I didn't say NO use) for MS-Word or Word-like applications.
Plain-ol' ASCII text suits most day-to-day purposes, and for those few
things that require actual typesetting etc. there's Lyx.
> Besides, maybe he wrote it in Corel or some other Linux app that knows
> about M$Word format docs. yeah, right.
Regardless (and highly doubtful), there's no need for bloated attachments.
Just send the text! The argument here is the same as for HTML mail and is
non-Microsoft-specific: Less bloat, more compatibility. ASCII text is a
win-win situation.
=8^)
--
You know that everytime I try to go where I really want to be,
It's already where I am, cuz I'm already there...
---------------------------------------------------------------
Derek D. Martin | Unix/Linux Geek
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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