The cows were desperate to be milked, the sheep to be sheared
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Microsoft falls on its face
DESPITE HAVING SAID that a recent court ruling would not disrupt its sales of Office, Microsoft pulled copies of the software from its own website yesterday.
The Vole had said it would release a version of Office that did not contain the custom XML features that a court has ruled it nicked from Canadian software house i4i and therefore would have to stop selling.
However it is clear that Microsoft didn't make the new version of Office ready in time to sell at its own store. According to Computerworld, yesterday the Vole had to pull almost every version of Office from its online store to comply with the court order.
The only edition available from the Microsoft Store was Office Ultimate 2007, a $670 "full-version" suite. Attempts to access all other Windows editions, as well as Office 2008 for Mac, were met with the message, "This product is currently unavailable while we update versions on our site. We expect it to be available soon."
Microsoft has admitted that the disappearance of Office was related to the permanent injunction that was granted to i4i in winning its custom XML patent infringement lawsuit.
A spokesvole said that Office would be back in the store soon, although previously Microsoft had said a revised version of the software would be ready by January 11. "We expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for US sale and distribution by the injunction date," it said.
We could say it is not clear why Microsoft has encountered such difficulty, or we could just observe that the company screwed up.
The Vole has posted updates for Word 2003 and Word 2007 to its download site. All it had to do was merge the patches and post the non-infringing versions, and it had weeks to do that, therefore we can only guess that either it is massively incompetent or it chose to inconvenience its customers intentionally.
Meanwhile Microsoft has asked the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to grant a review of its appeal before the full court. µ
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I run OpenOffice and it served me perfectly for years :-)
Why pay if it's there for free?
MS may be expensive and crooked, but at least they have a software solution for any need. Most Linux distributions are still trying to publish drivers not to mention simple applications. I would much rather steal Microsoft products. They work pretty well and as far as I'm concerned it's open source.
"Some idiot coder stole code rather than build it themselves; honestly MS would have never condoned it. In fact they go to great lengths to ensure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen"
You must be on drugs if you think MS is a honest company. They thought they could slip this through and got caught. I say good and I hope it hurts them too.
Open Office is they way, long live Open Source, Open GL, Linux and so on.
Now bash me MS fanboys, go for it.
What is this, the collected wisdom of every linux malcontent ever born? MS is a company, arrogant, yes but that happens to all of them Apple and Google included.
Some idiot coder stole code rather than build it themselves; honestly MS would have never condoned it. In fact they go to great lengths to ensure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen. I agree MS should have just gone off and admitted someone broke the law, punish them AND pay the owner some outrageous fine.
Really people take off the tin-foil hats ….
Of course Micr0$ucks has a version ready for release, they are waiting for the latest appeal, they don't want different version floating in the wild.
And of course they want it both ways - software patents are wonderful when they benefit the Vole, they are horrible when they don't.
HB
i wonder if M$ can see a link between their MASSIVE price tags and piracy of their software.
its staring me in the face but they seem ovlivious to it.
belligerence perhaps? i am sure this mroe than negates any possible feelings of guilt on the part of the pirate
The only edition available from the Microsoft Store was Office Ultimate 2007, a $670 "full-version" suite."
Wow, Office Ultimate 2007 for $670!!!
I could buy a PC and get a free Linux OS like Ubuntu run Google Docs, OpenOffice or Zoho on that AND STILL HAVE MONEY TO SPARE.
This no posting the XML removed version is similar to statement that "IE is integral part and cannot be removed". MS will not set an example to people enabling them in future to say look MS you remove IE integration overnight... see its not integral part. you removed i4i xml module overnight, see its not integral. So to escape such arguments in future you have to experience a little outage till microsoft performs a "deep surgery" to remove this integral component.
You've no doubt accurately predicted the demise of this massive corporation due to one false patent-infringing step. We reader shall presume they are boxing up their personal effects in Redmond as we speak.
What was the rejected headline from your editor? "Tits-up Vole Curses Maple-Leaf XML Red Baron"?
Simple, they weren't ready because they usually drag things through the court system for years hoping the other fellow goes bankrupt, make a deal, or win. I guess they thought they were going to win this one. Poor Baby, time to lick the wounds and move on.
Why do we continue to put up with this crap from M$? Ubuntu and other Linux dialects are out there, running solid as a rock, and, in the current context, Sun Open Office is a very good M$ Office replacement. Yet, when I go to a computer store for a new laptop, I still cannot get one without M$ Windoze, which I don't want and delete before installing Ubuntu and Sun Open Office. There's collusion out there, but how to kill it?
I really do not think that Microsoft is falling on it's face.
What a headline .What a joke.
Microsoft will survive and prosper
So when did Microsoft ever really deliver on its promises?
This is not news, this is simply another case of Microsoft not delivering.
Why is this so surprising?
The only thing ms is good at is stealing and copying software.
The two options mentioned by the author: massive incompetence and a determination to screw customers were not the only ones available. MS had a third option: incredible arrogance.
They stole someone's code and the sensible thing to do so as not to inconvenience customers would have been to quietly pay penance and royalties to the code creators and leave it in the program.
Oh no, no, they could never do that.
Yet they will hunt petty pirates of their own code with bloodhounds and pay off politicians to draw and quarter ordinary consumers.
"therefore we can only guess that either it is massively incompetent or it chose to inconvenience its customers intentionally"
M$ is BOTH massively incompetent AND likes to screw customers.
But because of luck and a disregard for law and ethics, they've "succeeded" in terms of money.
is this the only news you could scrape up for today? Who gives a crap!!