Open Office 2.0 Beta

PC World carried a story a while back about an agreement between Sun and Microsoft that opened the door for The Big Evil MS to sue individual users for downloading and installing Open Office. There's good reason for Microsoft to be worried. If you haven't seen Open Office 2.0, then you might want to go take a look. Its interface is very improved over Version 1.0; and for most people, it will fit the bill every bit as well as Microsoft Office.

Open Source software has to be the thorn in Microsoft's side; and while it's not the only threat to MS, it is certainly the one that has their attention. The adoption of several mainly overseas governments of open source, Linux especially, has been the first of many kinks to come in Microsoft's armor. Open Office is, of course, the open source office tool of choice. Allowing people to download it for free—if it catches on—could put another rather large kink in their monetary rails.

This is an interesting time to be involved with computers. I am convinced we are in the middle of an era of change, one in which Microsoft's dominance will begin to crumble. Open Source and Mac gains will slowly eat away at MS's market, replacing its monopoly with the two things that will win out every day every time—low cost and/or innovation. MS largely strikes out on both counts.