For those not aware of this, there's a little known company by the name of IBM which is going after Microsoft with both guns blazing at the same time its sales of Microsoft-compatible hardware and software are booming.
Well, Rod, for once you and I agree about something. IBM is a force to be reckoned with, and the new Lotus product may well become the first significant Java-based product. I stress "may well become" because I only know what I've read about it.
When the product is officially released, the official coffee coaster of Corporate America will be Microsoft Office CDs.
I'm not so sure this can happen so quickly. Maybe, but I'm not sure. Keep in mind that MS Office pricing when sold with new PCs is next to nothing. Also, people don't change office suites that readily. Take WP for example. WP 5.1 for DOS continues to be used in a large number of law offices even today--in many instances, even where the office is otherwise running Windows.
I believe a more likely scenario is that MSFT will get on the bandwagon as its sees the threat gaining momentum. There is still PLENTY of time for this.
The package is premised on a version of the old 80/20 rule: 80 percent of the use goes to only 20 percent of the software's functions.
More like 95/05, I'd say. We install networks in professional and accounting offices. In almost all instances, our customers prefer something simple -- Microsoft Works, for example, over the bulk of Microsoft Word. They don't use 90% of the crap that Word can do, and even if they DID have a use for it, they wouldn't be able to figure it out. When you put an MD in front of a word processor, you damned well better have the simplest one in existence, or you'll lose 'em every time (sorry, I know we've got an MD lurking around here -- present company excepted....) |
