Microsoft Demos Windows XP Service Pack 2
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What's more, Wueste said, Microsoft's full suite of products are aimed at providing comprehensive business solutions rather than small, piece-meal applications from Linux that "are unsupported, that sort of look like Windows applications that don't really work."
Wueste said the Linux solutions maybe support an import from a Microsoft classic application 50 percent of the time. "For realtime business situations, the thing we hear from customers and partners is they want the platform and solidity that is there with Microsoft."
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Great response from ccchips at lwn.net here:
He could probably display some great examples of these problems, too.
Just like, 30 years ago or longer, if I had been a "hi-fi-stereo" vendor near the top of the heap, I could have shown you how my competitor's product couldn't be plugged into mine, or how distorted the signal would be if it could.
Big deal. This kind or charlatanism will disappear if, and only if, our industry and political leaders force Microsoft's hand, and tell them they need to standardize on connectivity and interoperability.
I really don't give a flying whatever if Microsoft classic data formats can't be shared around between products and platforms, because I expect as much. What I do care about is whether Microsoft will get out of their pigsty and start acting like mature businesspeople who have to communicate with the rest of us, and I care whether they will ever understand that my data is mine, and that I should be able, and free, to share it with whomever I choose, regardless of what pen and/or pencil I write it with.