On Sat, 2005-01-10 at 23:16 -0400, Nancy Merckle wrote: > On Fri, 30 Sep 2005, Tom Pangborn wrote: > > > "... and word was no > > longer available ; How would ..." > > > > Wouldn't you just install the old version of Word, the one the file(s) > > were created with? Wait a minute, we're pretending aren't we. > > We weren't pretending when higher ups decided that we would now all be on > a Word standard. This required all official documents for our office to > be produced in Word format. After 18 years of a Word Perfect standard, > there were a lot of legacy documents to be converted to Word. Neither > Word nor Word Perfect was able to convert complex documents from one > format to the other. Many hours were spent (by others) converting > documentation from WP to Word. There are now less than a dozen licenses > for WP in the division, so finding someone to convert a legacy document > can be difficult. > > When OOo announced its upgraded Word Perfect filter about 18 months ago, I > was experimenting with it and a co-worker mentioned a document with tables > that he had tried to convert with no success. He e-mailed me the > document, I opened it in OOo, saved it in Word format and e-mailed it > back. It may not have been perfect, but he was very happy. > > With OOo, I'm no longer concerned about loosing access to my Word Perfect > Documents. Also, I can read Word docs, without having to send $ to M$ for > the privilege. (It is provided at work, but I don't even have to use it > there.) > > My point is that sometimes old versions of the software are not available, > having been removed for security purposes, non-renewal of the license, or > the only remaining copy of the software died on a dead hard drive. > > > Nancy That is exactly the scenario that caused the problems. In this case your company decided to standardize on Word, and your suppliers and customers who needed to exchange information with you also needed to be able to read and write documents that your company could use, so they had to switch as well... and so on... and so on ad infinitum. It was a well planned and orchestrated move by MSFT to persuade some high profile organizations to standardize on their products in such a way that other organizations affiliated with them would be forced to switch at full cost in order to comply. That is what capitalism is all about, not just getting the biggest piece of the pie, but getting all the pies. I'm not suggesting their is anything intrinsically wrong with capitalism but unregulated it is the root cause of monopolistic forces, and white collar corruption.
