Sun wants people to pay for StarOffice [LWN.net]

Sun wants people to pay for StarOffice

Posted Sep 21, 2004 18:23 UTC (Tue) by lolando (subscriber, #7139)
In reply to: Sun wants people to pay for StarOffice by JoeBuck
Parent article: OpenOffice: A legal Trojan horse--but for whom? (ZDNet)

> The day Microsoft threatens a patent action based on one of its file
> formats is the day that every well-managed company comes up with a plan to
> move its valuable IP out of that file format.

I think the problem is right there: "well-managed". If companies were "well-managed", they'd have switched years ago. People have been warning against proprietary data formats for years, they've been warning against proprietary (hence non-provably) (in)secure software, they've been warning against vendor lock-in and monopolistic abuse.

Either most companies aren't "well-managed", which I could agree with given the sample of one that is the entirety of my personal experience, or "well-managedness" has no influence (or bad influence) on decisions like these, which is what management tries to convince you of (by repeatedly avoiding the subject).

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Sun wants people to pay for StarOffice

Posted Sep 21, 2004 22:29 UTC (Tue) by pjhacnau (subscriber, #4223) [Link]

But there's a big difference between "potential" risks and being sued. Look how fast Ernie Ball was able get all MS software out of the company after the BSA picked on them.

Yes they're a relatively small company but I think the example can translate to other companies.

Sun wants people to pay for StarOffice

Posted Sep 22, 2004 11:42 UTC (Wed) by markhb (guest, #1003) [Link]

I believe that, in most companies (especially the larger ones), "well-managed" is defined as "whatever makes the sales force happiest." ANYTHING proposed by the IT staff which gives them cause to complain is usually frowned upon by the top-level management (many of whom probably came from sales to start with). MS software is entrenched at such companies because a) it's compatible with what their clients are using (again, MS software) and b) the sales force already understands it. Give the sales force a choice between making IT fight the occasional virus fire, and losing the fancy bells-and-whistles provided by the Outlook / Exchange combo, they'll happily accept the viruses.

Remember too, that for publicly-held companies, "well-managed" is also defined as (in preference to the above) "has a rising stock price." Wall Street isn't going to punish companies for outbreaks of MS-related viruses, because the analysts and large purchasers have already accepted them as part of the accepted standard (i.e., "no one ever got fired for buying Microsoft") for doing business.