scott wrote:

> It's just because nobody feels that could write something that is 
> superior enough to Windows to make enough money to warrant the development?

Indeed - primarily because if they somehow managed it, they would 
instantly be bought out. The End.

> I mean, come on, Windows is pretty flexible, given that my mum can do 
> stuff on it, I can use it to run CFD simulations and design LCD screens, 
> also I can play 3D games and even write 3D games on it, plus raytrace :-)

Apart from your mum being able to work it, the same could be said for 
just about any OS. (And even Linux isn't that hard to work these days. 
Damn hard to set up, but not that hard to operate once you eventually 
get it working.)

> ANd you even said yourself that XP is reliable now (although I always 
> found it reliable) - if you upgrade your ancient copy of Word you'll 
> find that is reliable too.  Where exactly is any competition meant to 
> improve to get people to swap?

True story: One of our users was working on a vital report. She hit 
"Save", and Word crashed. From that point onwards, any attempt to access 
this file caused Word to instantly crash. So I loaded it up in 
OpenOffice, saved it again, and several hours of potentially lost work 
were saved - literally.




Why would anybody use Word? 2 reasons:

1. Everybody has heard of Word. Nobody knows what OpenOffice is.
2. OpenOffice still has some rough edges to be smoothed out.

Any idea how many people are switching away from IE? Enough to provoke 
M$ to start development work on it again.

Looks like competition is finding plenty to improve on...

> Sure, you can reach for niche markets, but you're never going to take 
> over from Windows with that approach.

Sadly, it seems we are stuck with M$ Windows forever. I mean, M$ is too 
powerful to beat. They're unstoppable. We're all doomed...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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