Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: I don't think so

Author:Seth Gordon
Posted:8/24/2000; 7:19:20 AM
Topic:Next survey: Are you an open source developer?
Msg #:20080 (In response to 20078)
Prev/Next:20079 / 20081

I have heard that Microsoft's chief customers for Office are large organizations that buy hundred-seat licenses -- the revenue from moms and dads who buy individual copies is just gravy.

I could imagine such a company deciding to standardize on StarOffice, paying their own staff (or some consultants) to squash bugs and add features, and then releasing the changes to the community. (The company would benefit from spending the money by being the first to get bug-fixes, rather than waiting for someone else to provide them, and by adding modules that help the software work with their own business processes.)

Of course, that company could also decide that StarOffice didn't have all the features they wanted, while MS Office did, and when factoring the cost of adding those features into the total cost of ownership, they'd be better off paying for MS Office licenses than paying for StarOffice support.

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