Plea for help: The detriment of using Microsoft products

[jc at trillian.mit.edu (John Chambers)]

 Paul Lussier wrote:
	 
	 > >Currently, you run Linux, because you recognize that MS products have
	 > >serious issues.  Do you plan to change your mind suddenly when MS releases
	 > >Outlook for Linux?  I didn't think so...
	 > 
	 > I'm not saying *I* will change my mind.  What I'm saying is that the current 
	 > argument for *not* using Linux on the desktop is "Lack of apps" which loosely 
	 > translates to "Lack of MS Office".  ...

Hmmm ...  In my experience, a very simple question has usually  shown
this  to  not  be  quite  true.  When people tell me that they use MS
software because what they need isn't elsewhere, I often ask them how
many other systems they actually investigated. Invariably, the answer
is "None." They are usually somewhat embarrassed by  this  admission,
of  course,  since  it is belies what they just said.  But they never
seem at all apologetic. If anything, they become more assertive.  The
real  message is "I have no intention of looking at anything else, so
don't bother me with nonsense about other computer systems."

When and if MS Office becomes available on linux, it is  unlikely  to
convert  more  than  a  handful of users.  Some people will use it on
linux, but you'll find that they're mostly people who used linux  for
other  things already.  The MS-only crowd will simply find some other
"necessary" piece of software that isn't yet supported on linux,  and
insist that this is their reason.

You can't win this game.  At least, you can't win  it  by  trying  to
catch  up  with  someone  who is always ahead of you because they are
allowed to define the goal line and change it at will.  If I  can  be
the one to say what direction is "ahead", then I will always be ahead
of you.

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