Re: USA states' proposal to force port of MS Office to free platforms

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs noisehavoc org>]

On 07Dec2001 04:25PM (-0800), Andy Tai wrote:
> Hi, several states of the USA, in trying to resolve
> the Microsoft antitrust case, has proposed, as part of
> the settlement, to force Microsoft to port Microsoft
> Office to GNU/Linux (or Linux). If Microsoft is forced
> to do this, Microsoft as well will gain significant
> dominance on the application markets on top of free
> platforms (even at the expense of Windows' dominance
> in the OS market), given the fact that Microsoft has a
> lead in the office software technolgy over free
> software, and Microsoft's dominance in file formats
> favors people to use their office products even for
> people not running Windows as the OS.  
> 
> The entry of Microsoft Office, even a "forced" one, to
> free platforms, will form a major obstacle to the
> adaption of free desktops like GNOME and free office
> applications. Free desktop software needs time to
> mature and to establish itself. Microsoft's entry into
> the desktop on free platforms results in free Unix
> become a vehicle for running proprietary software.
> 
> In short, porting Microsoft Office to GNU/Linux will
> create more problems for the free software community
> and is not the right solution.  Maybe the GNU Project
> and the GNOME Foundation can issue statements opposing
> the states' proposal?
> 
> (Microsoft is big enough so it probably will not use
> any GNOME or KDE components but port their own
> Windowing system so no need to discuss the issues of
> GPL vs. LGPL with regards to Micrsoft) 

I think the Foundation should welcome Microsoft Office running on top
of a GNOME desktop, even if it's not 100% compatible. It would remove
a significant barrier to GNOME adoption.

And more users of free software would mean a better chance of success
for future free Office alternatives.

However, I am not sure a "forced" port would be a good idea - Internet
Explorer ran on Solaris at some point, but it sucked so much that
there was no point to using it.

Overall, I think the GNOME foundation should prefer to see free
software that works with GNOME, but certainly not argue against the
availability of proprietary software.

 - Maciej