Text 3522, 64 rader
Skriven 2005-04-10 10:55:12 av Adam Flinton (1:379/45)
   Kommentar till text 3508 av Mike '/m' (1:379/45)
Ärende: Re: s/w patents bad 4 ms...
===================================
From: Adam Flinton <adam@NOSPAM_softfab.com>

Mike '/m' wrote:
> On Sat, 9 Apr 2005 16:23:54 -0400, "Geo" <georger@nls.net> wrote:
>
>
>>"Mike '/m'" <mike@barkto.com> wrote in message
>>news:muif51dugeml9bsjr7bsamn973u7u0r13h@4ax.com...
>>
>>
>>>On the other hand, in recent full-page Microsoft ads in the NYTimes,
>>
>>Microsoft
>>
>>>all but called its customers reptiles because the customers are running
>>
>>too
>>
>>>slowly on the Microsoft upgrade treadmill.
>>
>>Was that in reference to XPsp2 or was that in reference to the masses who
>>decided not to go beyond W2K unless MS gives up on the deactivation stuff?
>
>
> I think the main drive of the reptile ad was to get everyone to upgrade
> to the new version of MS Office.  I'm not sure because the intended
> message was all but lost in the "you're a reptile" theme.
>
>  /m
I had this discussion with the civil servant in charge of a large chunk of a
large gov division/sub-ministry.

We are now "officially" encouraged to use OSS where the required functionality
level is there or where only a small amount of effort (which would be put back
into the OSS tree) would be required in order to meet the requirements.

So we were chatting about the latter point i.e. what's a small amount of effort
etc. i.e. if you have a vast project & one piece is missing then building that
piece (as public funded OSS) would be a "relatively" small amount of effort...

So at that point the whole question of "equivalent functionality" cropped up &
ye olde MS vs the alternatives (inc Office vs OO)

I would point you to :

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/04/uk_government_backs_open_source_drive/


Anyway....the point that was made then was along the lines of that's it for
upgrades of office coz quite frankly the users have everything they need now &
the distinct impression was of a steady drift to OO as a result (i.e. as
tickboxes return true vs Office97/2k then adoption on Windows & then possibly
on Linux etc).


Any serious programming is to be done at the server level i.e. no more (new)
stunningly involved vba excel macros or user machines & a steady move of other
similar bit's of code to the server where it can be properly supported &
accounted for/validated.

Adam

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