Re: XyWrites 4 and 5 (was: RE: Dataviz and xyW)

[Leslie Bialler lb136@xxxxxxxx]

Paul Williams wrote:
>
> Not sure about the Balkans,

Who is? ;-)

> but the rest seems OK. Seriously though, its not
> the size of offices that matter, but the will to do something. XyWrite was
> well known, at one time, and somehow or other it has just slipped. Conquering
> the world is for Bill Gates, but there should, there MUST, be room for others!
>

True enough. But, as I have noted, when XyWrite was well known there
were far fewer people who could be considered "in the know." I've been
using XyWrite since 1988--when (with due respect to Mac users) the GUI
was merely a gleam in Bill Gates's eye, computers were used essentially
for word processing and spreadsheets, and when we ordered stuff from
Lands End and J. Crew we either filled out those little forms in the
middle of the catalogs or called the 800 number, possibly even with a
rotary phone. Perhaps somebody on the list has stats showing the number
of PC users in 1988 vs. 1998. Regardless, I see no way that the marketer
of a niche product has any chance of success in today's market.

And what about Bill Gates? On the one hand, I certainly hope that the
Linux people succeed. I think I saw on the net somewhere that some of
the pc makers will soon be in the position to sell you dual boot
machines--Linux or Windows. I certainly hope Gateway et al. offer this
option soon.

I can see a possible future where, say, Red Hat (Linux) makes a deal,
say, with Corel--so you could purchase a computer with Linux bundled
with Corel Office instead of Windows with MS Office. It might, at that
point, be profitable for Ken to look into the possibility of a Linux
version of Smart Words. I don't know. I have no idea what is involved
for that to become profitable, if it ever can be.

At any rate: It would certainly be preferable to have this sort of
honest competition than having the U.S. Govt. step in to create, say,
Baby Microsofts, as they once created Baby Bells which, as you will not
have failed to notice, are merging together again.


--
Leslie Bialler
Columbia University Press
lb136@xxxxxxxx
> http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup