Comment Microsoft IS porting office to linux (Score 1) 217
Oh get a clue.
This is The Microsoft Media Machine operating at full-tilt.
Consider this:
Microsoft "leaks" "rumors" that it's started work on porting Office to Linux. They carefully coordinate the "leaks" so they seem to be coming from enough places that they must be true. Linux weenies (and I'm talking about /. readers here) get all excited about the "announcement".
As expected, everybody starts saying thinks like, "oh, maybe MS isn't that bad", or, "_I_ won't use Office, but at least lots of people will now be able to use Linux for business desktops". Everybody forgets about the cause, about the idea that software freedom is about _not_ dealing with code hoarders like MS. You all turn your back on your roots. You send people like RMS and ESR and others whose names you don't know the message that everything they did was for nothing because you're prefectly ready to sleep with the enemy if they only sing the right lulaby. And you send companies like Netscape and Corel the message that all that work they did, all that money they spent for _your_ cause meant nothing.
Meanwhile, companies and people that might make good office products for Linux give up because they know they can't get users: people are waiting for Office for Linux. And meanwhile, MS still hasn't released any code.
Months later, there's _nothing_ left. It's finally become clear that MS never had any intention of actually creating any Linux software. And anyone who might have made a suite of their own has packed their bags and left.
Microsoft wins, we all take it up the ass, and history repeats itself again.
This is The Microsoft Media Machine operating at full-tilt.
Consider this:
Microsoft "leaks" "rumors" that it's started work on porting Office to Linux. They carefully coordinate the "leaks" so they seem to be coming from enough places that they must be true. Linux weenies (and I'm talking about
As expected, everybody starts saying thinks like, "oh, maybe MS isn't that bad", or, "_I_ won't use Office, but at least lots of people will now be able to use Linux for business desktops". Everybody forgets about the cause, about the idea that software freedom is about _not_ dealing with code hoarders like MS. You all turn your back on your roots. You send people like RMS and ESR and others whose names you don't know the message that everything they did was for nothing because you're prefectly ready to sleep with the enemy if they only sing the right lulaby. And you send companies like Netscape and Corel the message that all that work they did, all that money they spent for _your_ cause meant nothing.
Meanwhile, companies and people that might make good office products for Linux give up because they know they can't get users: people are waiting for Office for Linux. And meanwhile, MS still hasn't released any code.
Months later, there's _nothing_ left. It's finally become clear that MS never had any intention of actually creating any Linux software. And anyone who might have made a suite of their own has packed their bags and left.
Microsoft wins, we all take it up the ass, and history repeats itself again.
