ITinfo: Microsoft Releases Office 10 Beta in the Face of Linux Forces

Gnome Foundation Pressures Microsoft

Early release of application suite competes with Linux apps

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Microsoft Releases Office 10 Beta in the Face of Linux Forces

by Dave Murphy
ISSN 1535-3613

The GNOME Foundation is backed by industry titans IBM, Compaq, Sun, and HP. At LinuxWorld the big-money support for Linux has begun to offer light at the end of the tunnel for system administrators and users who want systems that aren't beholden to Microsoft. Stepping aside from Microsoft's Windows operating system and Office productivity suite means the opportunity for competition and software development that is responsive to individual needs and expectations.

The GNOME Foundation aims to push broad adoption of GNOME on Linux and Unix desktops worldwide.

Microsoft is fighting a war against just about every major hardware developer and will soon be fighting against software developers, too. I speak to very few enlightened engineers and programmers and no industry executives, who are pooh-poohing Linux. Microsoft's days as a monopolist development house are limited. Within the year, we'll have credible and well-financed alternatives to Windows on the desktop and Office as our productivity suite.

In someways I fear for the upcoming alternatives. Ten years ago, I loudly complained about the duplication of effort we put into authoring both WordPerfect and Word books. I wished WordPerfect would out-muscle Word (I still think WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS and 5.2 for Windows are the perfect word processing applications). But I realized that WordPerfect, Novell, and later Corel just didn't have the money to compete with Microsoft. And I quit my grumbling and happily authored learning texts for Microsoft Office seminars (at least I didn't have to write both WordPerfect Office and Microsoft Office texts.)

Now, I'm lamenting the end of the Microsoft dynasty. Trainers will still write Microsoft Office texts, but will now add Corel WordPerfect for Linux and StarOffice texts. Within two years, we'll have at lest one more significant competitor in the office productivity suite for Linux arena. And these competitors will author new cross-platform versions: WordPerfect for Windows, StarOffice for Windows, Microsoft Office for Linux.

Yes, MS Office for Linux. If Microsoft's to survive for the another 20 years, it will have to embrace multiple operating systems and platforms.

In the short term, watch for a new version of MS Office for Windows to hit store shelves in a few weeks.

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updated August 15, 2000
http://dgl.com/itinfo/2000/it000815.html