MS Office for Linux?

[Gordon, Seth]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark J. Dulcey [mailto:mark at buttery.org]
>
> I suspect that the point is more to prove that the application and OS
> portions of MS are really operating independently. If they 
> were, MS would
> already be working on a Linux version of Office; it's a 
> significant market
> (perhaps bigger than Mac already, and certain to be bigger in 
> the future).
> And if they did a Linux version, they could also trivially port it to
> other Unix versions; adding the Solaris market, in 
> particular, would be
> worthwhile for them.

I'm not completely sure an independent MS-Office company would be porting
Office to Linux: Linux is big and getting bigger, but it's big in the server
and embedded-systems world, not so much in the desktop world.  The smarter
thing to do might be to wait and see how StarOffice et al. do in the
marketplace before investing the amount of money necessary for a complete
Linux port.  Or maybe develop a system that would allow part of MS Office to
run on a Linux or Unix server while Windows machines handle aspects of the
program where network latency would hurt performance.

I'm also not sure that an independent MS-Office company would be maintaining
a Mac port of Office.  It might be more useful to MS as a weapon aganinst
Apple (as shown by the Findings of Fact) than as a revenue source in its own
right.

--seth
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