Subject: socks ? on : off (was RE: integrating bidi (was Re: version 1.0))
From: Paul Rohr (paul@abisource.com)
Date: Thu Feb 08 2001 - 15:38:06 CST
Bill,
Thanks for the reality check. You're not a heretic. On one level you're
quite right. If:
- you already use word processors, and
- you only consider the 1.0 product, and
- you know nothing about how it came to be, then
- your reaction might very well be "ho hum".
If I'm hyping too much (and I try not to), then perhaps you're being too
modest. Granted, all of the following people will certainly keep their
socks on:
- people who use tables or embedded spreadsheets
- people who got Word "for free" on their fast new machine
- people who only print their documents, and never share them
That's a lotta people. Depending on your sense of scale, the first category
may not be all that big, but the second and third certainly are. There are
reasons why certain individuals in any of these categories might choose to
switch to AbiWord anyways, but they'd probably be in the minority. For now.
I'd be very happy if your description fit the emainder of these folks.
However, I was thinking more about "the rest of us". Anyone who doesn't
have a shiny new Windows box with a new version of Word (pre)installed is
made to feel like a second-class citizen in the computing world, and that
sucks. You have two choices:
- pay big bucks to upgrade to a current Word version, if available, or
- do without.
You can reassure yourself all you'd like about any alternative you choose,
but no amount of rationalizations can help when the person you're working
with sends you even the simplest Word document and you can't read it.
This is a very real problem for people, and there is no good solution. No
matter what your platform or locale is, *all* existing proprietary
alternatives suck. It's just a matter of degree. (Worse, we all know that
the network effects of monopoly economics make it very likely that they'll
suck even worse in the future. Lockin is a wonderful competitive weapon.)
The fundamental appeal of AbiWord is that we have a great product (because
we're very, very good at what we do) with a greater future (because we're
Open Source). People can *and will* understand that if our stuff isn't
quite up to their standards yet ...
- wrong locale
- wrong platform
- missing feature
- etc.
... each and every such problem can and will be solved, as soon as a single
programmer somewhere on the *planet* agrees with them. I don't care who you
are -- as soon as you believe that idea, your toes start itching. :-)
That's the implicit promise of any Open Source effort, but most folks don't
start believing until they see that someone's really delivering on those
promises.
My claim is that 1.0 is a very very substantial first delivery of that
promise. This is not a toy. This is not a flash-in-the-pan. This isn't
going away. This is real, and it's getting better every single day.
Sayonara, socks.
(OK, you can hose me off now.)
Paul
vision -- it Just Works, everywhere, for everyone
motto -- we're delivering on that vision, every day, worldwide
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Thu Feb 08 2001 - 16:27:41 CST