For #4, I'm suggesting that just because you use Word and I use Word does not guarantee that I will make changes and send you the document back in the same format. Or that even if the format is the same that when you open it on you machine the layout will look the same.
#6, I'm saying the average person can't do basic things. The average person can only do a basic thing in any OS once they have been trained or shown how to do a basic things - and we haven't defined what basic is either. Most people will say email and creating documents, but I know quite a few people that use a computer for nothing more that Mahjong and solitaire. Now once you change the interface to the OS (say from XP to Windows 7) even though all the "basics" of the OS are essentially the same, the average person is going to become frustrated at the new layout and need to be retrained.
I'm not against paying for software, I've even bought a number of commercial softwares for FreeBSD, but sadly I think most development is driven by marketing and laziness. By laziness I mean that people want what I call "the one button app". You just click the one button and it magically does every thing you want - of course this view comes from a number of years of writing software for corporate users. Marketing well - again from my experience in the corporate world - drives almost all software and hardware decisions and if you are unfortunate enough to have decisions made on the golf course and not in technical meetings it can get really bad...ok, I'm going to stop being bitter now.
#6, I'm saying the average person can't do basic things. The average person can only do a basic thing in any OS once they have been trained or shown how to do a basic things - and we haven't defined what basic is either. Most people will say email and creating documents, but I know quite a few people that use a computer for nothing more that Mahjong and solitaire. Now once you change the interface to the OS (say from XP to Windows 7) even though all the "basics" of the OS are essentially the same, the average person is going to become frustrated at the new layout and need to be retrained.
peetaur said:And BTW, I am not against pay software, and biased towards free stuff. I just really strongly believe that things should be driven towards quality, and should be as compatible with other software as possible, and follow open protocols and standards. The people that pay for it, and use it should drive the development, based on their needs. It should not be the people that sell it forcing the people that use it to lock themselves in and reduce the popularity of open software.
I'm not against paying for software, I've even bought a number of commercial softwares for FreeBSD, but sadly I think most development is driven by marketing and laziness. By laziness I mean that people want what I call "the one button app". You just click the one button and it magically does every thing you want - of course this view comes from a number of years of writing software for corporate users. Marketing well - again from my experience in the corporate world - drives almost all software and hardware decisions and if you are unfortunate enough to have decisions made on the golf course and not in technical meetings it can get really bad...ok, I'm going to stop being bitter now.