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IBM pinches Open Office from Sun !
http://www.linuxworld.com/story/44811.htm
My heart goes out to SUN. Apparently, IBM's new middleware product now uses Open Office !
IBM cleverly did not use its own Lotus 123-Amipro etc.!.
This way they can piggy bank on the open source community while laughing all the way to the bank. Also, they can claim components of the middleware are opensource.
I think the IBM middleware is a serious challenge to microsoft. This is because it is not presented as a alternative, but something that can work **with** and **without** MS software.
And Sun?. They probably deserve a Nobel prize for masochism. Java, Open Office etc. etc.......
Karthik
Friday, May 14, 2004
Actually, though Sun has failed to make any serious money off Java, I think the existence of Java allowed them to stave off the death of UNIX during a critical time. At the time people were seriously buying in to the idea that Windows Server was a viable substitute for Unix and I think the rise of Java helped them through that.
name withheld out of cowardice
Friday, May 14, 2004
Karthik, I'm starting to think you'd post that the phases of the moon were a serious threat to Microsoft if you could figure out a way to justify it...
Philo <- talk about serious threats to Microsoft, they're still paying this guy a salary!
Philo
Friday, May 14, 2004
Philo, how can this possibly not be a serious challenge to MS, assuming IBM does deliver?
He's not saying MS will be driven out of business. It's just another challenge. Not necessarily a threat.
I recently made a recommendation for a client to go ahead with Sharepoint. It was an easy decision, since they were invested heavily in Office 2003.
If they had been using this office software instead, my recommendation might have been different.
Edward
Friday, May 14, 2004
So all of you are cool with going back to sharing time on a central computer.... I thought that was the WHOLE idea of the PERSONAL computer...... Just my rant, I know that systems are far different than 20 or 30 years ago. However do you think things would have progressed as far as they have if the world would have stayed under IBM and other companies central computing?
Gernot
Friday, May 14, 2004
Apple came out with the Newton years before PDAs were ready. Maybe it's time for centralized applications. Licensing and patching is much easier from one server. Obviously only applies to corporate.
I like that they're trying a different approach than MS. I like OpenOffice, but if they're only strategy is to copy Microsoft, they're always going to lag.
MS responds well to competition, so maybe this will result in better products all around.
Lee
Friday, May 14, 2004
Are companies like Dell now allowed to integrate things like OpenOffice without fear of Microsoft retribution?
Can they integrate a ham sandwich if they want? ;)
Tayssir John Gabbour
Friday, May 14, 2004
"Philo, how can this possibly not be a serious challenge to MS, assuming IBM does deliver?"
I'm honestly not commenting on the story; just on Karthik's recent spate of wistful "look at this - surely *this* is a serious threat to Microsoft!" posts.
(I posted with tongue firmly planted in cheek, I might add)
Philo
Philo
Friday, May 14, 2004
Philo,
Point Taken ;-)
Too much of slashdot you see.
Karthik
Saturday, May 15, 2004
"However do you think things would have progressed as far as they have if the world would have stayed under IBM and other companies central computing?"
The desktop as it is today is great for home users. In the corporate world many times they are support cost sinks. When one of my users can't connect to the system I give them a new Winterm. It takes several minutes to swap out and they are back up and running. Contrast that to swapping out a pc. "Hey, where, are my bookmarks." "How come I can't get into this website?" , are cries heard from users because of information stored on the unreachable profile of the dead desk top. Had this info been on a server where it get's backed up, the user would be in better shape. That is but one of the benefits of centralization in the business world.
To use an analogy (Sorry Dennis) why do you think Walmart controls lighting and HVAC to all of it's stores centrally? Don't you think they would be better off if they gave that "power to the people", you know the end users, they know what they need, right?
Putting rich user experiences at your workers desks via a pc is stupid and costly. Yet Microsoft is bringing us transparent desktops. Whoo f'ing hooo.
Crusty Admin
Saturday, May 15, 2004
The problem is that lots of those "dumb users" are important people in their organisations.
They bitterly resent being constrained as they go about their work, especially where the constraints are imposed by some 22 year old slashdot afficionado.
That's why the desktop won the software battles of the 90's, and why IBM is pissing in the wind. Again.
.
Saturday, May 15, 2004
"That's why the desktop won the software battles of the 90's"
Companies are wising up. If users want to play with their pc's they can do that at home. When your at work, work, don't make the wallpaper all cutesy and have a kitty cat trampling on your screen.
Crusty Admin
Saturday, May 15, 2004
Im betting thin clients will return. Maybe not right now, but some day they will. SImply because, centralized administration is more cost effective. Computing power is getting cheaper and at some point it will be ridiculus not to just put a load of it in one location instead of all over the place.
Also, Modern PCs are way over specced for office work. All that surplus computing power is a waste of money.
Eric Debois
Saturday, May 15, 2004
"When your at work, work, don't make the wallpaper all cutesy and have a kitty cat trampling on your screen"
Go rent "9 to 5" and pay attention to the underlying business commentary - that when people are comfortable at their workplace they're likely to be more productive and spend more time there. Put them in a row of haze grey cubicles with a "one potted plant and one family photo not to exceed 5" by 8" in a plain black frame" policy and you'll have a miasma of clockwatchers that punch out at 5:00:00 every day.
The PC desktop is just one more desk accessory that allows a little bit of personalization in a place where you're asking people to spend 1/3 of their waking life.
Philo
Philo
Saturday, May 15, 2004
"PC desktop is just one more desk accessory "
What???, I have always considered the PC a business tool not a "desk accessory". Maybe MS. will grow up when they learn that the "personal computer" is also a "business computer".
People can put pictures and flowers on their desk to accessorize and feel more homey. When they "accessorize " their pc's this can cost the company 1,000's of dollars in support headaches, obviously
MS. does not grok this concept after 25 years in business.
hjm
Monday, May 17, 2004
Is this necessarily a bad thing for Sun? Perhaps it is a triumph of the open source model.
IBM are using OpenOffice, and they can contribute there significant Lotus expertise. Under the license they will have to make the source available.
The input that IBM make will go into Sun's own StarOffice product.
Then again, perhaps it won't. Time will tell.
Ged Byrne
Monday, May 17, 2004
Thin clients are coming back. It's just happening gradually.
We now have ubiquitous flat screens (saves electricity and space). Computers are finally getting smaller and smaller. The floppy drive is slowly vanishing from new computers.
As computer speed outpaces software requirements more and more, the trend will continue. Companies will buy their hardware exclusively in waves of identical units. New employees get a unit out of the inventory that might be up to two years old.
Now, it's not going to be thin clients like traditional thin clients. The software won't actually be running on the server, because Microsoft wants their cut of the pie. Instead, the "thin client" will basically be a cached copy of a remote Windows image.
Users will be able to customize their experience like they do now with XP. Hopefully, Microsoft will get off their asses and make screen savers a sandboxed specialty program instead of ".EXE name .SCR" like it is now. So we'll finally have the dream of restricted users that can't fuckup their machines no matter how hard they try.
MS will push MSI's for software installation to the point where all software certified for installation on Windows must have an unattended installation mode so it can be centrally deployed.
Developers, Graphic Artists, etc. will still have custom workstations for the forseable future. The boss will get a nice, pretty, titanium-covered thin client with the fastest damn processor available.
It predict it'll be the norm in offices by 2010.
Richard P
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
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