States struggling to deal with digital documents

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Adobe complies; Star Office complies

What some states are discovering is that open source using Star Office tends to get the developers working while Microsoft lobbies to justify Microsoft Office. Star Office is just Java. The output can be formated for many packages. Typically Adobe PDF but Microsoft isn't excluded.

What I think is happening is that the leverage enjoyed by software houses has been lost. Software houses prior to the shrink wrapped era when Microsoft rose to monopoly power could have one project team develop software, package that up and then sell millions of copies, the limit on the number of copies sold being a function of marketing just like a consumable. Beer comes to mind.

Anyway software turns out not to be a consumable when it is written properly. It lives and grows as the business or government does. This wasn't the case in the COBOL era. During that time, code would become like spagetti, to dificult to maintain, and best junked after say 15 years. But todays object oriented tools are not like that.

Today's Java coders are constantly refactoring code so that it never goes stale.

This switchs the business model for a software house to something more dependent on labor, something more like a barber shop or a law office where the amount of business you can charge for and support is a function of staffing rather than marketing.

If Microsoft thinks more like say an accounting firm or a law firm and sees the dependence on labor - it will find profit. Most of IBMs profit comes from its consulting line of work and not from even hardware sales.

Posted by: mighetto   Posted on: 04/25/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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