C.O.L.A a Detriment to Linux and the Biggest JOKE on USENET! 2847

Wibur Post

I'll tell you why. Because MS is smart in business. They give copies away for little to no cost to stategically important people. People and schools. Schools are then incented to teach nothing but Microsoft stuff. Students are taught to use microsoft tools to such a degree that they are utterly hopeless without them; I have seen this first hand. Then MS gives their product away to big business and government agency execs. These execs start using these products the requirement to use them becomes standard in that office or agency. Anyone that wants to do business with these companies and agencies then has to use MS products...or so they are lead to believe.

Also, your price is way off:

Additionally, you are right. People are afraid to try new things especially with the degree of inoperability of most Windows systems. If the thing works they don't want to f*** that up because it doesn't take much to make them act funny. They may also fear infection by virus because every damn thing you download can infect your computer and make it non-functional and embarbutting when it infects your coworkers and friends.

Finally, I have to agree that MS Office is a slightly better product in *some* aspects; Open Office is just as bloated and stupid and doesn't have outline view. In my opinion the benefits do not outweight the problems. Others feel differently. At least OpenOffice works on my operating system, which MS Office does not. I can still share .doc files with coworkers and friends using OpenOffice and have not run into any problems doing this.