Re: OT: Death To Word, Final Word

[flash flash@xxxxxxxx]

Ah, yes Gresham was the name I was groping for. But as far back as
Aristophanes, too? My Word! (If I may use that exclamation in this
company without detriment.)

≪Does it also apply to computer programs?≫ Well, it did apply to
MS-based programs, and I have a(n) hypothesis how that came to be. I do
not attribute it primarily to the "the herd mentality of bureaucratized
corporations", though that was certainly fertile soil for the seed to
have fallen upon. The seed must first have been strewn, however.

Cast your minds back to the days when MS-Windows was still in its
infancy: Win3.11, Win95, Win98--these were primarily gaming platforms
intended for the home market. They delivered with oodles of graphics and
music drivers, Plug-&-Play for the non-geeky, joy sticks and color
monitors. The professional world was not using MS-Windows at that time.
The professional world was running Unix (for big number crunching), Mac
OS (graphic design and publishing), Sun, IBM OS/2, or Novell for office
applications (messaging, file sharing, etc.). Anybody out there remember
Lotus Notes?

WinNT was MS's big leap into the corporate market, the first MS OS which
came in server and client versions. Word came wrapped up in the bundle,
along with PowerPointless (presentations), Excess (tables with
calculations), and Access (db). MS knew they were up against corporate
giants (Novell, IBM) and a vast pre-installed base. MS actually _paid_
customers to dump their Novell servers and install MS-based ones. I know
because I was doing Cisco training at the time, and I suddenly saw rows
and rows of Novell engineers out of work, desperate to get retained as
networkers because they had been chucked out of their server departments
and replaced by MS-trained server engineers. Once corporations got
hooked on the MS OS, they just took the MS-apps (Word, etc.) line and
sinker. Aggressive marketing, not features or functionality, triumphed.
That's my theory anyway.