Long Live the Web

[swansont]

I was under the impression that they keep changing their format for no good reason, thus forcing the (probably incapable of keeping up) competitors to redo all their compatability work.

 

Also, there's the whole OOXML vs. MS-OXML thingy...

 

I thought it was to force all of the customers to upgrade to the latest version. Even though they were as happy as they could be with the version they were using, other than not being able to read files from the new version.

[StringJunky]

I suspect that when the revenue stream for a particular product reaches a plateau, or is in sight, a dominant company like MS artificially creates a state of obsolescence by bringing out a new format that is partly or completely incompatible with the older one. Companies, it seems to me, aren't interested in steady streams...they want continual growth hence the need to keep creating demand albeit artificially. It all boils down to maintaining investment potential for speculators/shareholders so any projected share price (i.e. up) looks viable enough for them to invest or to continue doing so.

 

A crap financial model really because it creates boom/bust cycles in the bigger picture of the national/global economy due to excessive speculator mobility causing extreme market fluctuations. Maximising revenue for the shortest possible shelf-life are the watchwords unfortunately not steady streams and durability.

 

From this example one can see how the microcosm affects the macrocosm when it's replicated in sufficient numbers....multiply this mindset across the globe and you have a primary contributor to the state of the current global economy IMO.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Thanks.

 

I agree that was historically the case, but is that entirely true today? I thought you could open and edit Word and Excel does in Google Docs (I think they just added editing recently) and in that standalone Office alternative, which I forget the name of.

You can open .doc files in OpenOffice and Google Docs, but they have significant bugs. Their importers have to reverse-engineer the .doc format, which is rather difficult. You often get messed-up formatting.

 

Importers for the .docx format are being developed, and the existence of a standard makes that much easier.

 

I thought it was to force all of the customers to upgrade to the latest version. Even though they were as happy as they could be with the version they were using, other than not being able to read files from the new version.

Microsoft's gotten better about this. When Office 2007 was released with a totally new file format, they released a free upgrade for older Office versions that allows them to read .docx files. You have to install it manually, but it's useful.

[swansont]

Microsoft's gotten better about this. When Office 2007 was released with a totally new file format, they released a free upgrade for older Office versions that allows them to read .docx files. You have to install it manually, but it's useful.

 

I hadn't noticed; I was using an older version and the presence of an upgrade wasn't advertised didn't do me much good. Microsoft annoys in so many ways it's hard to keep track. (I have to quit the updater program, which I didn't open in the first place, in order to install the update?)

[Pangloss]

Well I just uploaded a .docx and was able to edit it, but it wouldn't surprised me if all the features aren't supported.

[padren]

So it's basically advertising. Which is my point — parts of the system that do not matter are open, and the part that makes the money is not.

 

I wouldn't call that advertising - it's "selling" a commercially competitive open source engine for free, knowing that expertise with that engine can translate into lucrative contract work. I also wouldn't say the parts that are open don't matter, as the model often offers advantages to potential adopters beyond the financial incentive in making it more competitive than high cost pure commercial alternatives.

 

There are also many products that are fully open source, free for non commercial use, but require a fee for commercial use beyond a certain scale. Rakknet is an example of this sort of product.