The argument about the internet is a specious argument, unless you are suggesting that Microsoft knows better than it’s customers.

Yes, I am talking about that IBM. You, of course, realize that IBM viewed the PC as a mistake and tried to foist MCA on the world. There is example after example of the attempts to herd the computing public back in to the IBM corral. That same “PC mistake” by IBM launched Microsoft itself. See what “openess” can do. It is a very powerful argument against closed, proprietary systems.

Microsoft’s file format for it’s past and currently shipping applications is indeed not open. I challenge you to submit the link to the specification for any shipping verison of Word. I present http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html as defense for my position. As to MS’s announced file format, I challenge you to prove that MS is and will keep it open and not try to stymie other applications from reading/writing that same format. Their history does not lend any weight to your argument.

My arguments are neither wrong nor untrue. I too am a consultant but I champion the cause of my employers not my suppliers.

I too am amazed about the amount of “features” that Microsoft continues to cram into their products. And I know that there are plenty of people that are now using the latest version of Microsoft Word – yet only still write simple letters!

The development of software continues at an accelerated rate – unlike the Automobile industry that can wait a year to show off new features. While Microsoft Word began as just a “word processor” – that same exact program is now used in corporate environments where people collaborate on the same document and publish them directly to the web!

Now I have no problem that many people do not need this functionality. But the home user didn’t think they’d need high-speed Internet access a few years go either.

You mentioned that IBM had lessons to be learned the 90’s due to “their proprietary, non-interoperable tendencies” – huh? Are you talking about the same IBM that gave us the IBM PC – that spawned an entire home computer industry with their VERY OPEN system?????

Microsoft’s file format is NOT a “a closed proprietary file format” it’s well documented – but more importantly the next version of Microsoft Office is completely built on an OPEN file format!

I have no problem when some simply has a bias towards their software due to Security, Features, or simply how it “Looks”. . .but as a Microsoft consultant, it’s frustrating when people dislike their products for the “wrong reasons”