[odf-discuss] ITWire article: "Novell drives nail into Microsoft Office coffin"

[Alberto Barrionuevo (FFII)]

Just seen:
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/10185/1023/
http://slashdot.org/articles/07/03/06/0151207.shtml

Any more info about this OOXML capabilities in OOo and if OOo is
planning to add it to the official version?

With an interesting comment in ./
---
I believe the yearly revenue for Microsoft Office is about 15 billion
which is about one third of the total revenue Microsoft makes every
year. Correct me if I'm off. Over the past five years or so Microsoft's
stock has been essentially stagnant. And Microsoft has had to make huge
cuts over many of the preceding quarters to hit their street
expectations and keep the stock from tanking.

Even a modest hit to the Microsoft Office revenue due to the upgrade
treadmill from the format lock-in would have a massive effect on the
company. Over the years Microsoft used their rapidly growing stock to
keep salaries down and attract people with the lure of huge gains from
their option grants. If office software revenue starts falling and
Microsoft exec options start turning worthless I think you will start to
see dramatic cuts at the company - the multi-billion dollar Xbox fiasco,
the Zune mess, and many of the other let's throw money at new markets to
try to get the stock moving attempts that Ballmer and others have tried
since the stock peaked back around 2000.

I have to imagine that Microsoft will fight this move to open office
formats with a fury never seen before. This isn't just extra billions
that Microsoft won't miss, it is the multi-million dollar retirement
money for a whole lot of execs up in Redmond under direct assault by a
bunch of dirty hippies.
---

//Alberto.