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<TITLE>RE: MS Office for Linux?</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>> -----Original Message-----</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> From: Mark J. Dulcey [<A HREF="mailto:mark@buttery.org">mailto:mark@buttery.org</A>]</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> I suspect that the point is more to prove that the application and OS</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> portions of MS are really operating independently. If they </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> were, MS would</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> already be working on a Linux version of Office; it's a </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> significant market</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> (perhaps bigger than Mac already, and certain to be bigger in </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> the future).</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> And if they did a Linux version, they could also trivially port it to</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> other Unix versions; adding the Solaris market, in </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> particular, would be</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> worthwhile for them.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>I'm not completely sure an independent MS-Office company would be porting Office to Linux: Linux is big and getting bigger, but it's big in the server and embedded-systems world, not so much in the desktop world. The smarter thing to do might be to wait and see how StarOffice et al. do in the marketplace before investing the amount of money necessary for a complete Linux port. Or maybe develop a system that would allow part of MS Office to run on a Linux or Unix server while Windows machines handle aspects of the program where network latency would hurt performance.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>I'm also not sure that an independent MS-Office company would be maintaining a Mac port of Office. It might be more useful to MS as a weapon aganinst Apple (as shown by the Findings of Fact) than as a revenue source in its own right.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>--seth</FONT>
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