RE: [TCLUG:4711] Rumors of MS Office port to linux (why kid around???)

["Eric Hillman" <ehillman@cccu.com>]

>     M$ seems to be known for shoddy code writing; the new office would
> undoubtedly be buggy and unstable (most likely released before it's really
> finished), thus turning ppl away from Linux thinking that it's
> Linux's fault that their favorite office suite sucks. That would be a
no-win
> situation for Linux, and might be another element of ms's FUD (fear,
> uncertainty and doubt) campaign against it.

	Hmm...  I don't think MS is going to release a shoddy product in the hopes
of discrediting Linux.  Maybe I'm overestimating the vast bulk of humanity,
but if everything ran great on my computer *except* the Office suite, I
doubt I'd blame the OS for the problem.  Not that I don't think the first
release will be shoddy anyways...  But MS is not totally without competition
in this market, and they do want to sell products.
	Of course, it is possible that this is part of a Microsoft attempt to hit
Linux where it's soft -- as anyone who uses Office on a Windows box knows,
the first thing the program does is load about a billion little utilities,
menu-bars and add-ons to your system.  What if MS releases an easy-to-use
office suite that also happens to be an easy-to-install *window manager* --
something that gives businesses a no-brainer alternative to the perplexing
mix & match of GNOME/KDE + WindowMaker/Enlightenement/AfterStep/etc.  Sad to
say, *I'd* buy that.  Not to run myself, but it'd be one step closer to
making Linux a viable desktop for the rest of the office.
	Considering how much Office costs, MS could get the equivalent of an NT
Workstation's worth of profit out of every Linux desktop sold to a business.
If they can pull it off, it'd be foolish for them not to at least *try* to
cover all bases.