The plot thickens

According to an article in PC World – [url=http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114782,00.asp]IBM Eyes Office for Linux[/url], IBM are supposedly going to be porting Microsoft Office over to Linux.

Without Microsoft’s help.

Yeah right.

I really can’t see that happening – there’s no real value if we don’t own the code.

Microsoft have suggested doing it by emulation might work – that way IBM wouldn’t need the source code to Office necessarily.

Personally I think IBM should just license [url=http://www.openoffice.org/]Open Office[/url] and resell that – throw more development money behind the open source project.

Office might be a cashcow for Microsoft, but I really don’t think an Office suite is ever going to make anyone else much money – even if they did gain good marketshare from Microsoft. It’s just about a commodity now, and IBM doesn’t play well in that space.

Why not follow the path we’ve successfully taken with the OS, the browser and the development platform – pour money and expertise into an open source office project and the whole world benefits, especially our ability to sell the concept of a non-Microsoft desktop to our customers and the flow-on benefits that could have in the enterprise software arena.

Interesting times.

IBM has the muscle and the know how to make some really exciting stuff happen.

I just hope common sense and a continuing desire to be the good guys prevails.