Microsoft can no longer sell MS Word

[sgreger1]

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Micro...3-118986.shtml


So apparently they lost a lawsuit from some company called i4i that claims the way MS Word utilizes XML violates one of their patents.

The judge said Microsoft can no longer sell any version of Microsoft Word starting in a month or two.

What do you think Microsoft will do? Nearly every company in America uses MS Word so they stand to lose big cash if they don't get around this. Maybe they will somehow not allow any XML content or something?

[Veganpunk]

Wow, that could get ugly. Like you said, everyone just about uses MS Word.

[sgreger1]

I hear they are still ging to be allowed to provide support for versions people already bought which is great, because if they had to recall MS Word I would imagine that would hurt the economy pretty bad.


I'm guessing they will either file an appeal and win or pay this company to use their patent would be my guess.

[JPono]

I was just reading about this today. I see a settlement as the likely outcome.

http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderd...ms-word-sales/


Edit: Just saw this: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10...ag=mncol;posts

[lxskllr]

Everything will go on as usual. They've already fixed it, so they just have to pay up, and keep on keepin' on.

[sgreger1]

Damn, how come Microsoft never steals my ideas? I mean everyone's got it better than me, I have the worst of luck. Big corps don't steal my ideas, Michael Jackson never tries molesting me so I don't get multi-million dollar payoff's to not testify, and congress doesn't owe me any kickbacks.

What do these people expect, I go work for a living or something? The audacity of America nowadays.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go throw myself infront of some cars for the insurance money.

[badlands]

i love open office.

[Premium Parrots]

Damn, how come Microsoft never steals my ideas? I mean everyone's got it better than me, I have the worst of luck. Big corps don't steal my ideas, Michael Jackson never tries molesting me so I don't get multi-million dollar payoff's to not testify, and congress doesn't owe me any kickbacks.

What do these people expect, I go work for a living or something? The audacity of America nowadays.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go throw myself infront of some cars for the insurance money.

I hear dating Tiger Woods pays pretty good

[lxskllr]

i love open office.

That's what I use. I'm not a heavy office app user, but OO serves my purposes nicely. More people should give it a try. You get fully featured office suite free. MS STARTS at $100 and goes up from there as you add features.

[lxskllr]

I hear dating Tiger Woods pays pretty good

I'm not too proud... :^P :^D

[RedMacGregor]

my company uses Google Docs exclusively.. exports to MS Office, Open Office, PDF, etc as needed.

oh, and it's free..

[sgreger1]

my company uses Google Docs exclusively.. exports to MS Office, Open Office, PDF, etc as needed.

oh, and it's free..

Yah I expect a lot more companies will start doing this, especially small and medium sized businesses.

Ours is still in Office 2003 and we are a huge national corporation lol

[Bigblue1]

I use the iWorks platform by apple cost me $50 bucks as a add on when I bought my new machine 10 months ago compared to like $400 bucks for the office suite. Now I'm not a huge word processor, number cruncher and I don't think I'll ever use the presentation capability of keynote, so it was a much better choice and it is quite intuitive like all Apple Apps are....

[sgreger1]

I use the iWorks platform by apple cost me $50 bucks as a add on when I bought my new machine 10 months ago compared to like $400 bucks for the office suite. Now I'm not a huge word processor, number cruncher and I don't think I'll ever use the presentation capability of keynote, so it was a much better choice and it is quite intuitive like all Apple Apps are....

If you want a copy of MS Office Suite for Mac let me know I just got it for my wife.

[MojoQuestor]

i love open office.

That's what I use. I'm not a heavy office app user, but OO serves my purposes nicely. More people should give it a try. You get fully featured office suite free. MS STARTS at $100 and goes up from there as you add features.

I use OOo for most things. I do have a spreadsheet that is actually my time sheet for a job that dates back to the middle of 2000. I just made a new page for each week. The other day I tried to open a copy in OO and it only opened up through, I dunno, 2005 or so; "maximum number of pages exceeded". I have a copy of Gnumeric, so I tried it with that. It cranked away for a bit, then opened every page, no problemo.

It's a pretty simplistic spreadsheet with the usual formulae for converting times into hours worked. I think it would work fine in Gnumeric with no tweaking. At least there are usually alternatives in open source land. If there is a next time I will consider just starting a fresh time sheet for each year. However, I hope there will be no need. I don't mind working, and I don't mind making money, but I am full of loathing for time sheets.