On Sun, Jun 08, 2003, Stanislav Malyshev wrote about "Re: FS/OS in schools: why don't *they* tell us what they want?": > Government decision that all schools should use OpenOffice would also cost > the taxpayers (maybe less) and lock out the competition. The only visible > difference is that "we" win and "they" lose. That's OK, but speaking in > these terms and speaking about public benefit and freedom in the same time > doesn't sit well.
Wrong. If OpenOffice "won", and everyone started sending OpenOffice files to one another, Microsoft (or any other word-processor manufacturer) could relatively-easily use OpenOffice files because the format is open and code that reads and write it is available. The code is probably GPL so a proprietary program could not use it directly, but since it not patented nothing prevents programmers from reading the code and writing other code that does the exact same thing. So OpenOffice could never have the "edge" that Microsoft now has - being the only software with 100% compatibility with a commonly-sent file format - and it could not "lock out the competition". In any case, I'd prefer it that some open format (like OO's) "won" but the market of actual word-processing programs remain divided with no clear winner. This will ensure that nobody will *assume* that you must use a certain kind of word processor, and everyone will be free to choose his or her own according to its price, its features, its bloat (or lack thereof), its support of Hebrew, or whatever. -- Nadav Har'El | Monday, Jun 9 2003, 9 Sivan 5763 [EMAIL PROTECTED] |----------------------------------------- Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |Live as if you were to die tomorrow, http://nadav.harel.org.il |learn as if you were to live forever. ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
