on 10/18/2007 5:08 PM Paul spake the following: > On Thu, 2007-10-18 at 11:54 -0700, centos at 911networks.com wrote: >> On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:45:56 -0600 >> Frank Cox <theatre at sasktel.net> wrote: >> >> ... >>> Perhaps it would help if you pointed out to them that the Open >>> Document Format is an ISO standard for document storage and >>> exchange, and suggest that they use that instead. >> ... >> >> Here is the basic problem with Linux! Over 1 million office 2007 >> users and they have to change their software because it does not >> conform to the "standard". > > Well there are some fortune 500 companies like the automotive ones that > won't take office 2007 file formats and will not so kindly tell > suppliers to save in Office 2003 format. > > I imagine there are 100s of millions of users using previous versions of > office and can't read .docx without extra work ... why should a small > handful push the rest of the world around?? > >> Since Windows is about 90% of all the computers we have to adapt >> to them. > > Actually Office 2000/XP is probably the defacto standard if you are > dealing with large companies. The only reason Office 2007 has a > perception of being a standard over OpenOffice.org who probably has a > larger installed base is because of the "M" word in front of Office. > > Microsoft is pushing the issue making it impossible to buy office 2003 > unless you buy volume licenses because it is specifically forbidden to > downgrade Office 2007 to Office 2003 or prior version. > > People need to push back and not just accept everything. > > Regards, > Paul Berger The big problem is when you install Office 2007 the default save format is docx. And if you set to to the older versions you get a warning dialog that you will lose features, become impotent and bald, etc... -- MailScanner is like deodorant... You hope everybody uses it, and you notice quickly if they don't!!!!