[Scottish] The Future of the LUG

[Ian Ruffell]

> It's not so much getting politicians away from using Microsoft's
> products (although it could save a substantial amount) as getting them
> away from closed, secret, non-free document formats.  

Yeah, I don't dispute that open formats are a large issue.  But a) saving 
money is not to be sniffed at, b) I am extremely skeptical about saving to an 
open(ish) default (RTF) happening in practice - esp. when many users respond 
to "Save As" with "No, no, it's all too complicated". Periodic noises are 
made about RTF where I work and .... nah...

There are also issues over upgrade cycle, no?

>I can foresee
> problems ahead when all those documents written in Word 95 suddenly
> aren't readable when Office 2005 comes out and support for older formats
> is dropped (not that Microsoft would do such a thing, would they?)

Course not.  Lovely people. 

I'm not going to say proprietary software = proprietary formats, but the 
temptation is always going to be there.

> Argh! Not Slackware?  I'm definitely not voting for you!

:-)

Ian

-- 
Ian Ruffell
Tel.: 0781 3101934
Email: ian.ruffell at dsl.pipex.com