Redmond's Con Game

[Alias]

The formula that helped Microsoft attain vast power and wealth was:

1. Make the non-standard Office Suite the soup du jour on every table.
This worked, except for the huge legal field, who continue with Word
Perfect, and the 25% who have discovered Open Office/Star Office.

2. Let 'piracy' run rampant, until everyone is 'hooked' on their drug.
Then, the continued habit will be very expensive.

3. Suppress all instances of mention of alternative OSes, better, or
less expensive products, by a campaign of media lies and distortions.

4. Buy the press, bribe the media. Insert $1 billion in advertising
and 'white papers'. Offer free stuff to independent bloggers.

As soon as some customers people in the media objected, and stated that
the Emperor has no clothes, the gig was up. PCWorld Editor has resigned
rather than succumb to bribery, Huge corporations, hundreds of
governments, tens of millions of individuals, have switched their
platforms and products to avoid mediocrity.

The OEM lock-in has crumbled. System76, Microtel, WalMart, Lenovo, Dell,
had been shipping GNU/Linux and making their fortunes. Others are
jumping onboard the gold train.

My recommendation is http://ubuntu.org and try the liveCD, then on to
the 9 to 30 minute full install.

If you had files in a previous OS on hard drive, do back them up to safe
media.

No more 'Tense Tuesdays' hoping the latest garbage from Microsoft
doesn't hose the entire drive!

 

[Mark]

ROTFLMAO!

 

[HeyBub]

My recommendation is http://ubuntu.org and try the liveCD, then on to
the 9 to 30 minute full install.

I seem to recall someone claiming you also recommended Beta Max, Earth
Shoes, used Edsels, and desktop fusion as being the next big things.

Now that's not to say your current urging is likewise flawed, after all, a
broken digital watch is never right.

Me? I like to flog a dead horse when I come to it.

 

[Alias]

I seem to recall someone claiming you also recommended Beta Max, Earth
Shoes, used Edsels, and desktop fusion as being the next big things.

Actually, Beta Max was very successful in some countries. That said, I
have never recommended any of those products so your source must be a
good as your ability to reply to content rather than shooting the
messenger due to your inability to refute what I posted but what else is
new?

Now that's not to say your current urging is likewise flawed, after all, a
broken digital watch is never right.

Me? I like to flog a dead horse when I come to it.

More like you've bought Redmond's con hook, line and sinker.

 

[none]

Actually, Beta Max was very successful in some countries.

Beta Max is a good example of what marketing can do. Quality wise Beta
Max was far superior to VHS. Most pros bought Beta Max. Good mass
marketing was the only reason VHS finally won. The consumer was duped.
caver1

 

[Mark]

Beta Max is a good example of what marketing can do. Quality wise Beta Max
was far superior to VHS. Most pros bought Beta Max. Good mass marketing
was the only reason VHS finally won. The consumer was duped.
caver1

At least Beta Max was, in fact, a superior technology - OpenOffice, ne'
StarOffice, is just another also ran.

 

[Alias]

At least Beta Max was, in fact, a superior technology - OpenOffice, ne'
StarOffice, is just another also ran.

I prefer ABIWord for word processing, also available for Windows. I
admit, Outlook hasn't really been replaced with something decent,
although there is hope with Evolution.

 

[Gordon]

At least Beta Max was, in fact, a superior technology - OpenOffice, ne'
StarOffice, is just another also ran.

Open Office is at LEAST the equivalent of MS Office 2002 - and as it is
free, means for the average home user, it's FAR superior.

 

[Ken Blake]

Open Office is at LEAST the equivalent of MS Office 2002 -

When you are dealing with a product like Open Office, which purports to be
a clone of Microsoft Office, and compatible with files produced by Microsoft
Office, for most people the words "at least" are inappropriate. Even if it
did something better than Microsoft Office, it the result was less
compatible, it would make it a poorer product for most people.

Neither Open Office, nor any other non-Microsoft office product, is 100%
compatible. The more complex the document involved, the greater the
compatibility issues are likely to be.

I don't say that to try to dissuade anyone from using, or at least trying,
Open Office, but only to point out that, since many people need to exchange
documents with files created by Microsoft Office, it will *not* meet
everyone's needs.

and as it is free, means for the average home user, it's FAR superior.

*If* it meets someones needs regarding compatibility, yes it's clearly a
better value. But if it doesn't, it's useless, regardless of the price.
[/QUOTE]

 

[Mark]

I prefer ABIWord for word processing, also available for Windows. I admit,
Outlook hasn't really been replaced with something decent, although there
is hope with Evolution.

I started with Wordstar(CPM). Went to MS Works(DOS). From there, I went to
AmiPro(ne' Samma Word.) I kept with Amipro for quite awhile as MS-Word and
WordPerfect (win) battled. I finally switched to Office 98 without any
trouble in handling older work. At the time I switched, the big 3 (Ami, WP,
and Office ) were mostly tit-for-tat, but MS had the edge on support. I
currently use Office, but have a copy of WordPerfect installed.

I used to install copies of StarOffice as new versions came out. The first
free version was just an already failed. It got better as time passed, but
even in its OpenOffice incarnation, it's not able to handle all of the past
work done at my house.

MS will always have the edge because they have the support structure needed.
The great bazaar is too often just a flea market.

I don't worry much about email products anymore... I dunno' its kinda' like
worring about a hdtv when all the cable is providing is just rerun
marathons. I'm currently using OE.... 'cause, I guess, it's "handy" and does
the job.

 

[Mark]

Open Office is at LEAST the equivalent of MS Office 2002 - and as it is
free, means for the average home user, it's FAR superior.

Open Office isn't even the equalvent of Office98. The cost of OpenOffice,
however, does make it perfect for those that don't really have anything too
serious to do. Open Office fails miserably when it comes to user support.

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

Whine, whine, whine...

 

[Bill Sharpe]

Beta Max is a good example of what marketing can do. Quality wise Beta
Max was far superior to VHS. Most pros bought Beta Max. Good mass
marketing was the only reason VHS finally won. The consumer was duped.
caver1

One Betamax flaw was that the first tapes (later corrected) would only
record for 90 minutes. Most movies ran longer than this.

Bill

 

[Bill Sharpe]

Open Office is at LEAST the equivalent of MS Office 2002 - and as it is
free, means for the average home user, it's FAR superior.

And, of course, MS Office is up to version 7. Not to knock OOo, which is
an excellent program, especially at no cost.

Bill

 

[HeyBub]

Actually, Beta Max was very successful in some countries. That said, I
have never recommended any of those products so your source must be a
good as your ability to reply to content rather than shooting the
messenger due to your inability to refute what I posted but what else
is new?

Actually, my reply was probably closer to the mark than your original post
about Ubangi on an XP newsgroup.

And the fact that I own a shitload of Microsoft stock doesn't influence me
in the least.

 

[Bob I]

And, of course, MS Office is up to version 7. Not to knock OOo, which is
an excellent program, especially at no cost.

Bill

You mean Version 12? Office 2007 = Version 12

 

[Mark F.]

The formula that helped Microsoft attain vast power and wealth was:

Please.

Talk to the penguin.
http://www.linux.org/

Mark

 

[Alias]

Please.

Talk to the penguin.
http://www.linux.org/

Mark

Another who can't reply to content and can only lamely try to shoot the
messenger to try and cover up the inability to refute what's been posted.

 

[none]

At least Beta Max was, in fact, a superior technology - OpenOffice, ne'
StarOffice, is just another also ran.

Not really. They are getting better. The point is why not both? Most
consumers don't need everything that MS products supply at a high cost.
So let people have a choice and let these programs interact. The only
reason not to is because MS knows that these programs are good and if
they could interact with each other MS would lose control.
caver1

 

[none]

One Betamax flaw was that the first tapes (later corrected) would only
record for 90 minutes. Most movies ran longer than this.

Bill

But it was corrected. Nothing human made is perfect. But good marketing
can dupe the masses.
caver1