From j.l.schonfelder@liverpool.ac.uk Tue May 23 16:43:40 2000 Received: from mailhub1.liv.ac.uk (mailhub1.liv.ac.uk [138.253.100.94]) by dkuug.dk (8.9.2/8.9.2) with ESMTP id QAA64060 for ; Tue, 23 May 2000 16:43:31 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from j.l.schonfelder@liverpool.ac.uk) Received: from pcmail2.liv.ac.uk ([138.253.252.15]) by mailhub1.liv.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 2.12 #1) id 12uFtg-0004pF-00; Tue, 23 May 2000 15:43:04 +0100 Received: from [138.253.134.60] (helo=liv-dialup.liv) by pcmail2.liv.ac.uk with smtp (Exim 2.12 #1) id 12uFte-0002pT-00; Tue, 23 May 2000 15:43:03 +0100 From: Lawrie Schonfelder Reply-To: j.l.schonfelder@liverpool.ac.uk To: Phillip Helbig Cc: SC22WG5@dkuug.dk Subject: Re: (SC22WG5.1802) Use of Word to distribute documents In-Reply-To: <200005231417.QAA63933@dkuug.dk> Message-ID: Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 15:40:07 +0100 (GMT Daylight Time) Priority: NORMAL X-Mailer: Simeon for Win32 Version 4.1.5 Build (43) X-Authentication: IMSP MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII On Tue, 23 May 2000 16:16:43 +0100 Phillip Helbig wrote: > > As far as I know 90+% of people who use PCs > > or MACs are likely to use WORD. > > Some folks (including myself) would see this as part of the problem. > The vicious circle is "everyone uses it" (usually for some reason not > relating to the quality of the product) so let's make it the default. > This is what creates many problems with respect to microsoft in the > first place---no pressure for quality, since the users won't change to a > competitive product anyway (this is related to the use of proprietary > formats, of course). Of course, there are the other issues such as > security as well. > > Of course, many folks don't use PCs at all! > > > > If you are using Linux or solaris > > Many folks don't use linux or solaris. Given that wintel has 90% of the market and Macs about 5% plus linux and solaris a very large chunk of the rest (if I can believe the popular computing press and my local salesmen about a further 3 or 4%) this does not leave a very big "many" (;-). I believe staroffice also works on HPUX and a few other unix systems as well. I expect you might have problems on MVS and VMS but I think I am safe in saying that they now count for very few folks(;-)! PDF is not dejure a standard and is much less defacto one than word. WE have to work with what we have. PDF is acceptable if it does not need further editing by the receiver but word is probably the nearest to a workable editable format with reasonable retention of document features. -- Lawrie Schonfelder Director, Computing Services Dept. The University of Liverpool, UK, L69 7ZF Phone: 44(151)794 3716, Fax: 44(151)794 3759