MS Office for Linux?

[rpeterson at yellowbank.com (Ron Peterson)]

Richard Royston wrote:
> 
> It seems to me that what Microsoft has a monopoly of is not so much
> operating systems as "Killer Aps" for the office. Everyone uses MS
> Office because everyone else does, and they can't read what others
> write, or write what others can read, unless they use MS Office.
> 
> If the specs for MS Office files were commoditized, the problem would
> (largely) go away. They should probably be made a standard, and in
> addition, perhaps, put under the control of ANSII, or BEMA, or ...
> 
> If my word processor of choice, running under my operating system of
> choice, on my computer of choice, could read and write whatever my
> colleagues and correspondents wrote and read, I would be free (in
> Richard Stallman's sense of the word).

This is the best remedy I've heard so far.  I couldn't agree more.  NO
PROPRIETARY DATA FORMATS.

And what the heck, break 'em up, too.

Ron Peterson
rpeterson at yellowbank.com
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