A charming naivete. *Plonk* On Sat, Jun 14, 2003 at 04:29:23PM -0400, Sunder wrote: | Oh get over it. There are other formats. You ever heard of | XML? HTML? RTF? | | If the day comes where MS Office DRM only works with MS Office DRM, how | many people will switch to it? If your company is willing to switch to | it, then they'll give you a PC with it on it. If they don't, then they | can't expect you to interact with them via such formats and can't require | you to do so. | | You sound like someone's holding a gun to your head and requiring you to | have MS Office. | | Either way, you can ask them to export to other document formats which you | can read. Even now Office will export to HTML for example which is | readable by Mozilla and other browsers. | | Microsoft is not the DMV. You don't need to use their software. | | And no, I will never be part of your problem because the documents I will | create for non work use will be made with Open Office or will be plain | text, html, or xml files. | | If I'm required to use a DRM'ed Office for work, then fine, my company | owns those documents anyway and they can do whatever the fuck they like | with them either way. It doesn't matter to me at all -- it's their call, | it's their company, it's their documents. | | But, for personal use, I won't buy any upgrades or new Microsoft | software. End of story. | | Either way, how much a revolt do you think there will be if Microsoft | decides to lock down their tools (such as word) to the point where they | can no longer export to HTML, plain text, RTF should the author wish | it to do so and provides whatever passphrases or ID's needed to unlock | the document and export it out? | | Who would buy such a dog of a product? Do you think businesses are so | stupid that they'd put up with a product that jails them in? Get real | son, you're howling at the moon! | | On one hand you're bitching that you have to use Microsoft software on the | other you're complaining that I'm using it while I'm telling you I don't | want to and don't care to and won't upgrade to it. | | You want to make a difference? Go ahead, wipe every bit of Microsoft | wares off all your machines and burn the CD's you've installed them | from. Go all open source and show others the right way. At least I'd | have some respect for you for voting with your wallet and practicing what | you preach. | | Right now all you're doing is bitching that you're forced to buy and use | Microsoft Office. I say that's bullshit, and you know it. | | | ----------------------Kaos-Keraunos-Kybernetos--------------------------- | + ^ + :25Kliters anthrax, 38K liters botulinum toxin, 500 tons of /|\ | \|/ :sarin, mustard and VX gas, mobile bio-weapons labs, nukular /\|/\ | <--*-->:weapons.. Reasons for war on Iraq - GWB 2003-01-28 speech. \/|\/ | /|\ :Found to date: 0. Cost of war: $800,000,000,000 USD. \|/ | + v + : The look on Sadam's face - priceless! | --------_sunder_@_sunder_._net_------- http://www.sunder.net ------------ | | On Sat, 14 Jun 2003, Adam Shostack wrote: | | > Sure. And I'm glad you work with a small group of people who | > understand that you don't read their documents. After many years of | > refusal, I finally gave up. I work with lots of customers who expect | > documents in MS formats, and look at you askance for giving them | > anything else. You only get so many explanations before customers go | > elsewhere, and I chose not to spend them on this. Similarly, I could | > choose to speak to everyone I meet in, say, Russian. And some folks | > would understand. Others would walk away. So, you can argue that | > you're effectively required to speak English to do business in North | > America. I would argue that you're similarly required to use MS | > Office. | > | > | > You'll be part of the problem when Nogsuccob is apon us, because the | > documents you create won't be readable in OpenOffice, and Crossover | > won't run. | > | > | > Office Nogsuccob will only interoperate with itself. Companies will end | > up deploying it to interact with other versions, not for any real | > feature. | > | > You don't like the word force, I suggest quitting all use of .DOC, | > .PPT, and .XLS formats. Please educate the world on how much better | > the alternatives are. Me, I'll pay my $200 to not bother today, and | > regret it tomorrow. | > | > And by the way, do you have a driver's license, or other state-issued | > ID card? | -- "It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -Hume