hey! computer people are supposed to be geeks, not greeks!
re: M$' closed file formats, hah! the M$ office format constantly runs away from people who try to open it up, and those people keep on chasing after it. This has happened before, with the seminal office utilities that used to come with windows 2 and 3. try opening up an old .doc file from windows 2 with a copy of word 2000 for instance!
Now Microsoft could have it one of two ways, if they insist on beginning a totally new line of file types:
1) they could allow users to pick "save as... old" or "save as... new" when saving. they would also put a bunch of dialogue boxes saying how you could lose a lot of functionality if you choose old, and i bet that fucking paper clip will have something to say about it too.
2) they could just allow the new file format and that's it.
Now, to discuss. With option one many users will choose "old" because many users still have pre XP versions of windows and pre XP versions of office and so on. Most company images are windows 2000 or windows 98 or even windows 95. So what would be the point in "save as... new" when the minute you have saved the document, you cannot send it to anybody and it is unreadable to any machine except the one you are currently using?
with option two, this problem is the same, however the choice will no loner be there, forcing users to save in a file format they did not ask for and do not need.
Now add to the mix the fact that Microsoft applications are no longer 'products', they are now 'services'. And you know what that means? it means that you do not pay for them once, you lease them per quarter.
So people will take one look at this new office suite and realise that it has no new functions that their old one did not have EXCEPT the fact that
a) it is no longer compatible with the "standard"
b) it now costs a shitload more if you want to use it for any length of time
c) it will be an administrative headache when it comes to auditing the licences
So my feeling is that Microsoft thinks it is invincible, but that this time it will find out it has bitten off more than it can chew. Users and admins are NOT as gullible as they perhaps were ten, fifteen years ago.
