Hmm, you appear to contradict yourself here, but maybe that's because there are two issues at stake - OS compataibility and application compatability.
In this case, though, OS compatability is not an issue - the users maintiain the Windows OS (for worse or worse) but gain Free / Open Source Software (for better or worse).
The gain is that the software is free, but OOo does not claim 100% compatability with MS Office (though I've found no compatability problems (under Linux) using either OpenOffice.org 1.0.x or StarOffice 6.0 since OOo1.0.0 was first released). So there is a potential loss there in your MicroEconomics-101 lingo.
Surely this CD most benefits those enterprises (typically small firms?) who do not have huge amounts of MS Word Macros / Intranets tested only with Internet Explorer. They can certainly benefit from such a CD - easily packaged, free replacement for existing software.
Let's not forget, though, (fond as I am of Free Software) that many are tied to MS proprietary formats - not just the OS, the one useful thing Windows does (file/print sharing) has been replicated transparently by SAMBA - but the MS Applications.
I have always held that, while MS do have a monopoly on the OS, their strongest side is still their applications - MS Office is at least as good as StarOffice/OOo, and IE (security flaws aside) is almost as good as Mozilla 1.x.
Where users are tied to MS Office by macros, and IE by non-standard Intranets, they can't really get much out of this CD. And let's face it, most *large* users are in this situation.
The SMEs (Small / Medium Enterprises) are a great target for this CD, though - throw it on the front of a few prominent Power-User PC magazines, and a lot of SMEs could save a fortune, realise the power and savings of Free/OpenSource Software, leading to (my ultimate goal):
More users -> more feedback -> some useful feedback -> better software -> better software for all!
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Re:Another reason for not switching to Linux
Posted by: sgp321 on December 08, 2002 11:03 AMIn this case, though, OS compatability is not an issue - the users maintiain the Windows OS (for worse or worse) but gain Free / Open Source Software (for better or worse).
The gain is that the software is free, but OOo does not claim 100% compatability with MS Office (though I've found no compatability problems (under Linux) using either OpenOffice.org 1.0.x or StarOffice 6.0 since OOo1.0.0 was first released). So there is a potential loss there in your MicroEconomics-101 lingo.
Surely this CD most benefits those enterprises (typically small firms?) who do not have huge amounts of MS Word Macros / Intranets tested only with Internet Explorer. They can certainly benefit from such a CD - easily packaged, free replacement for existing software.
Let's not forget, though, (fond as I am of Free Software) that many are tied to MS proprietary formats - not just the OS, the one useful thing Windows does (file/print sharing) has been replicated transparently by SAMBA - but the MS Applications.
I have always held that, while MS do have a monopoly on the OS, their strongest side is still their applications - MS Office is at least as good as StarOffice/OOo, and IE (security flaws aside) is almost as good as Mozilla 1.x.
Where users are tied to MS Office by macros, and IE by non-standard Intranets, they can't really get much out of this CD. And let's face it, most *large* users are in this situation.
The SMEs (Small / Medium Enterprises) are a great target for this CD, though - throw it on the front of a few prominent Power-User PC magazines, and a lot of SMEs could save a fortune, realise the power and savings of Free/OpenSource Software, leading to (my ultimate goal):
More users -> more feedback -> some useful feedback -> better software -> better software for all!
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