[linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?

[Daniel James]

> With OpenOffice 1.1 I have yet to meet a user in real life (I've
> heard lots of accounts like your own on the net and I believe
> you, but in business I gotta rely on the experiences of those
> who pay me) who's unable to use it for basically everything for
> which they used Word/Excel previously.  So I'm going to go out
> on a limb and say that number is a lot larger than 5% now, and
> is growing with each release even if the market share's a lot
> slower due to the primary marketing being word of mouth.  I'm
> surprised the low end PC makers aren't already preloading it in
> lieu of MS Works or WP Office, but I bet they do sooner or
> later.

Our local white box mail order computer builder already ships Windows 
XP PC's with OpenOffice preloaded. It's a no-brainer for them, given 
the cost of an MS Office licence, which they can't put much mark-up 
on because the customer will go to the volume software retailer 
instead. 

They can't put much mark-up on XP either, so I expect the operating 
system market for the smaller independent builders will go the same 
way. I expect that in future Windows will be priced as an optional 
extra, which is only fair. I believe the Windows licence is the most 
expensive individual component of an entry-level PC.

Cheers

Daniel