I have come across items from time to time which suggest that it may be or is illegal to reverse engineer software, including data formats. So that, in the future, or maybe even now, it will be illegal to write a filter to convert WORD documents into other data formats. Is this true? How bad is it going to get? What does this mean for StarOffice and Wordperfect, among others. How rich will I get investing in MS$? I ask because at work we use Wordperfect 5.1 on a unix server with PC's for terminals for report writing. Works fine. But, our IS people, ignoring our requests for improvements elsewhere in the system (like useful data retrieval), are talking up converting over to WORD. I cannot understand why anyone would want to do that for the plain vanilla two page reports (medical lab) which we generate. Wordperfect 5.1 is fast and quite capable, lacking only items which our vendor or our IS people have disabled or forbidden us from using (like macros, if you can believe it.) But, I have come to realize that when you are supposed to be an Information Services professional, and don't have a clue, you push to become a completely Microsoft shop. This isn't a sick joke. I'm speaking from experience. Joel _______________________________________________ http://linux.nf -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives, Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, Etc ->http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users