"Microsoft barred from selling Word in U.S."

[Spacey]

The veneer of Microsoft seems to have lost some of its lustre.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009 ... ml?ref=rss

I think this is good and bad. Microsoft tries to throw the book at people who don't respect copyrights (patents in this case) with their own software, but, as ruled by a U.S. district court, have done the same.

At the same time consumers (average Joes and Janes) may not have a pretty powerful program on the market.

[Ashu]

There are good alternatives such as the equivalent from Sun...and its FREE!

[Juliette]

The veneer of Microsoft seems to have lost some of its lustre.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009 ... ml?ref=rss

I think this is good and bad. Microsoft tries to throw the book at people who don't respect copyrights (patents in this case) with their own software, but, as ruled by a U.S. district court, have done the same.

At the same time consumers (average Joes and Janes) may not have a pretty powerful program on the market.

This verdict will never hold in a higher court.. quite because of the latter.
With Word being an illegal product, thousands of companies need to switch to sub-standard, hardly compatible alternatives.



Unless they're smart, and use the Word web-app, with offshore server parks to run them on.

[Spacey]

I'm hoping that it holds. Although I doubt that it will. Just because corporations seem to have the country (US) by the horns. I figure Microsoft will say if this hold they will lose x billions of revenue, lay off x number of people and it will hurt the country.

[Juliette]

I'm hoping that it holds. Although I doubt that it will. Just because corporations seem to have the country (US) by the horns. I figure Microsoft will say if this hold they will lose x billions of revenue, lay off x number of people and it will hurt the country.

Hm.. seems like a good argument?

Either way.. if it holds, would it make the product illegal in other countries too? That would require a separate case in each country, I imagine?




Should in the meantime any large employer/company be in need of Microsoft Word through WebApplications on a remote server park, I can connect you to .. various .. people who offer such services. Uptime guaranteed 99.995%, risk insurances to be negotiated.

[Spacey]

I don't know if it a great argument. Microsoft doesn't really support it anyway. I haven't seen a number to call for support for Word - just the online community page.

Good question about other countries. Maybe they will?

Here is the latest reported in this saga
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009 ... ml?ref=rss

Microsoft and its distributors face the imminent possibility of a massive disruption in their sales," the company said in its court filings, adding the public will also "face hardship" if Word or Office are unavailable for any period of time.

Microsoft was given 60 days to comply with the ruling but the company still feels that I4i's patents are invalid. Earlier this year, the same Texas court ordered Microsoft to pay I4i $200 million US in damages for violating the smaller company's patents.

[buck]

I think its better for PCs and users worldwide if it stands up, not getting into the legal issue of it as i dont have the time...

However, there are plenty of much better much more powerful programs than many microsoft offer, in many ways microsoft has been the reason behind many smaller software packages not comeing to promenance when argueably they should, Alot of people now use Firefox and Opera because they are safer and better and have more features than IE, now maybe they will do the same with other document based programmes. I hope so, because although microsoft are quality on the technical aspects of PC, and they are a big reason for the pc being such a huge part of life both working and socially, they are also holding it back.

[Reschef]

OpenOffice for the win

[buck]

OpenOffice for the win

Took the words outta my mouth, It opens and saves in so many formats its insane.

[Juliette]

Oo-kay. Firefox is by now just as bugged and virus-riddled as the earlier releases of Windows.
Also. Why did so many people have problems? Because they were too stupid to activate auto-update and get the hotfixes as they came, leaving backdoors open all over the place that were resolved ages ago.
Doesn't help to have an illegally copied, ripped or pirated version of Windows either.


Na. I like Windows 7.

[Legendary Apophis]

Oo-kay. Firefox is by now just as bugged and virus-riddled as the earlier releases of Windows.

Hmmm I do have more issues with IE than with Firefox.
I also got Safari which I use from time to time. Google Chrome I used once or twice. But otherwise, never tried to use any other browser. Perhaps there's better out there than Mozilla Firefox, but well I'm fine with FF...for now.


I also got OpenOffice, however I never used it past installing it on my pc...

[buck]

Oo-kay. Firefox is by now just as bugged and virus-riddled as the earlier releases of Windows.
Also. Why did so many people have problems? Because they were too stupid to activate auto-update and get the hotfixes as they came, leaving backdoors open all over the place that were resolved ages ago.
Doesn't help to have an illegally copied, ripped or pirated version of Windows either.


Na. I like Windows 7.

Nubj nubj nubj.

@Apophis, Word is a good useful word processing unit, But OpenOffice is incredibly handyif your writeing things like essays etc, has a few features microsoft overlooked. Oh, and you can cross format, FTW! So you can open word documents and mac documents on it, whereas in word you cannot. Handy for consolidateing materials with Mac Users and microsoft users in like.

[Solus]

hehe..... im all for getting alternate software packs etc, browser wise i go between opera and firefox regularly.

but i would like to point out that in the business world changing software packs like this isnt exactly problem free, nor free. i dont know the specifics of the Open Office EULA but generally with software like this, for home use it is indeed free but for commercial use it does require licences/purchasing etc. and asides from that, as a part of business economics, any large tool/software change will result in lost profits in the transitionary down time, and from memory OO is different in ways to MSO so learning the new software etc will reduce productivity when the down time is over, thus further lost income.

i dont want to see this happen..... maybe rather than making MSO an illegal product, maybe MS should pay a royalty or something?

that being said, i dont agree with MS violating copyrights and such, then using their status to weed out the smaller competition.

~soul