Microsoft faces off with Linux fans

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MS Apps for Linux - Maybe not!

You assume that everyone wants IIS, IE, and Word for Linux.

Apache is the top server on the web, even many IIS servers are merely "fronts" for Apache servers and UNIX/Linux servers that do the "real work".

IE has all those wonderful ActiveX controls, the same controls that allow a pop-up ad to read your browser logs, your Outlook mailboxes, and automatically add you to their mailing list, simply because you allowed the ActiveX control to run. Saying you like IE is a bit like saying you LOVE viruses, SPAM, pop-ups, and identity theft.

As for Word (Office), there is probably a stronger push for a standard interchange format, which is supported by MS-Office and other Office packages such as StarOffice, OpenOffice, WordPerfect, and all of the others. Preferably something that could be revision tracked (like TeX), and searched (like SGML/XML), and transformed from one useful format to another (like SGML & EDI). This way instead of having to manually copy/paste OLE objects to/from each other, often one cell at a time, you could run a daily PERL script to have up-to-date status.

It's really all about STANDARDS. Microsoft figures since it controls about 1 billion users and $40 billion in cash, that it just IS the standard. In fact, because they ARE the standard, they can change the standard any time they feel like it. Even if that does mean that 750 million of it's customers must no purchase new software (and maybe even new computers) or simply ask for copies in the "obsolete formats".

Try reading Office XP documents, with all the features, on Office 95. Even if you use the "save as" option, you get nasty warnings, and the document produced is unreadable.

With Linux, there are some established standards and some established formats. There are even programs to convert an xml document or CDF file into a series of database rows. I can even parse the HTML to get records directly into the spreadsheet, charting software, or database.

Posted by: RexBallard   Posted on: 01/23/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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