And now with Sun and Google in talks about a web based office application?

In the last few weeks, all I keep hearing about is the web, google and AJAX (well, maybe some other stuff too :P) and I think for once this isn't just hype. From what I've done with AJAX, I have seen how cool it is, and if Google and Sun do make an office application using AJAX (see here) then I think Microsoft wont have as much dominance in the Office application sector in the near future.

it's official. i was on /. and saw this.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=26734

while people could get it already, they will now be able to use openoffice.org from their web browser. I'm sure M$ will not be entirely pleased about this. lol. Why would anyone still use Windows?

while people could get it already, they will now be able to use openoffice.org from their web browser. I'm sure M$ will not be entirely pleased about this. lol. Why would anyone still use Windows?


The same reason they always have, It's been force fed down thier throats, they buy a computer, and there's Windows, all convenient like... Most consumers don't even know they have a choice. Sad, huh?


JohnTzu

You can order a machine with non-Windows if you want to. But most people, when they buy a computer at the store, expect it to be "ready to run" when they take it home! If they bought an x86 machine, they expect Windows. If they bought a Macintosh, they expect OS/X. But, to them, "the hardware" and "the software" are not separable pieces. They are intrinsically one-and-the-same. The hardware+software combination has been purchased to fulfill a specific purpose, and they're focused on that purpose. On the end, in other words, not the means-to-the-end.

When people buy Blackberries, PDAs, or iPods, they have utterly no idea what OS those systems run. What they have purchased is a physical thing; a tool, "to do a job with."

This is the mindset that we need to adopt in the Linux community. To us, the hardware is a platform to run software on, and the choice of software is very important. But to customers, the hardware and the software are one and the same, and they combine to form "a cantankerous but powerful tool." Like any tool, it will rise or fall by "how well it does its assigned task," and by "how much (unwanted!) attention it demands as the price for doing it." Our jobs must be "to make the tool less cantankerous." Our jobs must be "to make ourselves scarce."

We're never going to get anywhere by arguing to people that they should remove Windows and install Linux ... ninety percent of the time, I wager, "that's not going to pay." What will work is to present them with a better mousetrap, one that oh-by-the-by runs Linux, and that perhaps even does so on their existing hardware. We must remember when talking about our invention that it is a machine for catching mice."

sundialsvcs: That is a very well though out post. If Linux was more readily available preinstalled on new computers, people would probably buy it as it should (in theory) be cheaper. There are a lot of people who don't even understand what Windows is, they just see the boot-splash and then type in their password.