Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 14th Jun 2007 16:04 UTC, submitted by davidiwharper
Linspire Linspire has announced an agreement to license voice-enabled instant messaging, Windows Media 10 codecs, and TrueType font technologies from Microsoft for its Linux distribution. Additionally, Microsoft will offer protection to Linspire customers against possible violations of Microsoft patents by Linux.
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RE[2]: It all makes sense
by elsewhere on Thu 14th Jun 2007 18:15 UTC in reply to "RE: It all makes sense"
elsewhere
Member since:
2005-07-13

Would the majority of Linux users actually pay for MS Office? And more importantly, are there even enough Linux users to offset the cost of porting Office? Would Office be profitable on the Linux platform?

If Linux wants Office, they need to prove to MS that they're worth it.


Do the majority of Windows users actually pay for MS Office? I suspect a considerable portion don't, otherwise we wouldn't see the extreme measures used for validation.

The only truly viable market for linux right now is commercial/enterprise, and that's the segment that would be most likely to pay for their software, and also the only segment in which MS is truly vulnerable to any extent since those customers use different criteria for purchasing considerations than consumers do. But since Office has been used as a tool to keep Windows dominant in the enterprise space by providing a major obstacle to alternative OS adoption, that's not a road they're even going to explore as anything other than a desperation attempt.

Frankly, if OSX had serious enterprise traction or potential, you would never have seen MS Office for Mac, either.

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