Re: About satandrads and politics

["Bud Beckman" <n7su@micron.net>]

From: Donovan

>Correct. Microsoft were forced to support java because it won the
>standards war. They took an alternative approach -- rather than ignore
>java, which could have hurt them a great deal, they moved to undermine
the
>platform independence of java.

I do not keep up with the news as I ought, cynical person I am, but the
jousting between MS and Sun are still going on in the courts, appelate or
otherwise?

>MS Office is a collection of several components that can talk to each
>other. It is not a monolithic mess as you suggest. The main problem IMO
>with Office ( besides vendor lock ) is that it's "security" ( ie none )
is
>a joke.

Hmmm, you prove my point, vendor lock, eh? At one time I thought I'd lock
in with NT, help me!

>In fact KDE/GNOME are both working on Office like technology, and
Koffice
>already is a proof-of-concept. I am not fully aware of CORBA's security
>features ( besides the fact that it has "some" security ), but at the
very
>least, the linux office apps are written for multi user systems.


You will have to tell me what CORBA is. My ignorance again.


>> >Office selling so well is the fact that it is the only office suite
that
>> >completely conforms to the (defacto) standard.


No competion or the lack of a widely used OS? The justice dept is
deciding for us or . . .

>> Never having used MS Office, to what standards are you referring?
>
>Defacto standards, in the sense of the industry "standardising" on
>products. As opposed to credible, documented standards, developed by
open
>groups ( no pun intended ). The industry "likes" open standards, but if
>there's no open standard, they will often standardise on a single
vendor's
>product, as a pragmatic ( if somewhat unsatisfactory ) solution.


Back to the justice dept again. Anyone know how many software vendors
have tried without success to get MS to open up the codes to their little
GUI?
>
>Cheers,
>--
>Donovan
>

I'm not in a cheerie mood when my stupid Windoze froze again this AM.

Bud