The first fruit of the recently announced Novell/Microsoft interoperability agreement arrived on Dec. 4, with Novell's announcement that its version of the OpenOffice productivity suite will now support the Microsoft Office Open XML format. The release candidate of Novell's modified version of OpenOffice.org 2.02 is now available for Windows for free download by registered Novell users.
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Member since:2006-01-06
Member since:2006-04-21
Member since:2005-07-24
"""I don't really know where you're going with that."""
Not directed at you. :-)
To be honest, I posted the reply because I liked the sentiment of the post I was replying to... without reading through the thread.
That said, there is, no doubt, room for improvement on all sides.
I would say that the more we can all "steal" from each other, the better off we are.
We are subscribers to a site devoted to OS diversity. Some of those OSes I scratch my head over. Who would want this? Others I actively dislike. But, when push comes to shove, I'm glad they are there. (As much as I dislike Windows, it is the best choice for many.)
Discussion about who is stealing from whom seems a waste.
And, btw, this post can be interpreted as "thinking out loud".
I hope it's not just noise! ;-)
Member since:
2006-04-21
I happen to be a Linux advocate. But I can't help but feel that advocates on *all* sides are a bit quick to let themselves be pushed into a corner where they are reactively arguing from a position that they would not normally support.
For example, if Enemy X Corp. comes up with a great new idea, should the Freedom Fighters community dismiss it out of hand because it comes from them?
Most people in *any* camp would say no. But if you accuse their camp of copying the idea we get exchanges like this.
Just to raise another interesting point... what if Enemy X patented their idea? The Freedom Fighters camp would scream bloody murder.
Fundamentalism is every bit as limiting as a bad patent.
We are all much more *effective* (and pleasant) when we stop to think about whether we are fighting a straw man. Sometimes the opposing side makes a valid point that just doesn't matter. It's best to recognize the situation. And sometimes, saying nothing is the most advantageous thing to do.
I don't really know where you're going with that. I didn't say it was a bad idea to avoid a NIH (not invented here) mentality; I simply shot down tomcat's argument that OSS developers "coopt and steal" things.
I'm not the one who's being fundamentalist here - the fact is simply that there are those on this site, tomcat among them, who refer to anyone who does not profess undying devotion to the Gods of Microsoft at the altar of proprietary software as "OSS fundies", whether or not those people have actually expressed negative comments towards the very idea of using such software.