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Compete on Merit and Lowers Price
Once ODF is supported, (and I suspect that the XML submission they made will be silently withdrawn in 6 months to a year), the consumer will bennefit.

The 78% margin they made on Office was purely a monopoly margin. With 10 programs that can open the same file, expect them to have to price a word processor at a reasonable price point of around $79 for the suite. Current Office prices represent a price gouge that was forced on consumers because they had to choice.

Everyone wins. Open Source with greater penetration, the consumer with lower prices, and even Microsoft, where they are no REQUIRED to focus most of their efforts on making the product better, not spending all their money on preserving their monopoly position. Make no mistake, their product will get better now, it has to.

It's gotta hurt though, their biggest cash cow won't be able to finance all their loss leader technology pushes as much.

TripleII
Posted by: TripleII   Posted on: 07/06/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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Offce Open XML, not Open Office XML...  Fred Fredrickson | 07/06/06
Pay attention to what is said  bportlock | 07/06/06
What MS means is...  Fred Fredrickson | 07/06/06
Microsoft's Talent focused on Bending the Truth  brenthawkinsmd | 07/06/06
Microsoft bends on OpenDocument  Loverock Davidson | 07/06/06
We reached the tipping point where MS had more to gain by supporting ODF  DonnieBoy | 07/06/06
Seems the only one squiriming is you...  Confused by religion | 07/06/06
one could say...  OliverSeal | 07/06/06
Squirming to find a reason to b*tch is more like it  No_Ax_to_Grind | 07/06/06
Compete on Merit and Lowers Price  TripleII | 07/06/06
Merit and Price  Loverock Davidson | 07/06/06
Incorrect Assumption  TripleII | 07/06/06
Well...  zkiwi | 07/06/06
HA HA HA!  Linux Geek | 07/06/06
Microsoft is keeping its word  dragosani | 07/06/06
Maybe not a complete reversal, but they are bending. They are covering  DonnieBoy | 07/06/06
Well, given other plugins available, MS wants to try and control this at  DonnieBoy | 07/06/06
But at least it's BSD licensed  Michael Kelly | 07/06/06
HAHAHAHAHA. This is Great!  John Zern | 07/06/06
You need to read the ODF license, it is basically implementable by all,  DonnieBoy | 07/07/06
They should let the Open source community ...  Jay E Court | 07/06/06
What part of  Yagotta B. Kidding | 07/06/06
So what is stopping you?  No_Ax_to_Grind | 07/06/06
The companies that are asking for it just...  Jay E Court | 07/06/06
And, that was Microsofts problem, they did not want to give customers an  DonnieBoy | 07/06/06
Actually, it's, fun for us to watch DB Squirm!  John Zern | 07/06/06
Yes, they're blameable  Boot_Agnostic | 07/10/06
The FUD has been turned off  mighetto | 07/06/06
Why OSS developers ignore OpenOffice  OhMyGosh | 07/06/06
Poison pill ... ?  spamagnet | 07/06/06
Pure poison  OhMyGosh | 07/06/06
Irrevocable  Yagotta B. Kidding | 07/06/06
License already guarantees  spamagnet | 07/07/06
Wow. Talk about FUD  John Zern | 07/06/06
Just be glad...  rapson | 07/06/06
Notice that Microsoft will also be working arround the clock to create any  DonnieBoy | 07/06/06
My gawd, do you ever do anything but while like  No_Ax_to_Grind | 07/06/06
No_Ax_to_Grind - Your not that blind, or are you! NT  raycote | 07/06/06
Microsoft and ODF ... get the facts  whisperycat | 07/06/06
So long as they buy Office...  Anton Philidor | 07/06/06
could go both ways...  Monkey_MCSE | 07/06/06
This article is about an Office plug-in...  Anton Philidor | 07/06/06
and your point being?  Monkey_MCSE | 07/06/06
The basic XML file format is NOT rocket science.  DonnieBoy | 07/06/06
Not FUD.  Anton Philidor | 07/06/06
The argument for ODF is long-term accessibility.  Zogg | 07/06/06
If one wished to open a format...  Anton Philidor | 07/06/06
Quite sure you are wrong here  captmiddy | 07/06/06
Be ironic...  Anton Philidor | 07/06/06
There is the "small" matter of Belgium, too.  Zogg | 07/06/06
They already have  Yagotta B. Kidding | 07/06/06
I'm taking Microsoft at the company's word...  Anton Philidor | 07/06/06
What's the GUI to do with it?  Yagotta B. Kidding | 07/06/06
all about money  corticus | 07/06/06
This will insure a smooth transition ...  George Mitchell | 07/06/06
... from past to current versions of Office ...  Anton Philidor | 07/06/06
And you are right too!  George Mitchell | 07/06/06
Business decision  bluedog52 | 07/06/06
Twist would be a better term than bend.  Reverend MacFellow | 07/06/06
Good!  John L. Ries | 07/06/06
Without the invisible hand  jsjag1 | 07/06/06
Invisible Hand  John L. Ries | 07/06/06
No argument here.  jsjag1 | 07/06/06
How?  LittleGuy | 07/06/06
Embrace, Extend, Extinguish - Is this the first step?  Plain Logic | 07/06/06
100:1 odds it is  Colonel Panijk | 07/11/06
let me get this straight - xoxoxoxoxo  not of this world | 07/06/06
"homogeneity"  CobraA1 | 07/07/06
I have to give the MS guys some credit (hold your flames),....  yogeee | 07/10/06
This is news?  Master Guru | 12/05/06

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