Microsoft's latest attempt to attain world, er WORD domination
I wish I were joking. I'm gearing up to post rants about this on other blog sites. I post a lot of political and technical rants on other sites, but few get me as hot under the collar as Microsoft's unethical attempts to coerce people into using their crappy software.
They are now informing people that there is a "bug" in Microsoft Word which could permit hackers to execute malicious code remotely. Their solution? BRACE YOURSELF; They are advising people to DISABLE MS Word's ability to open of files formatted in one of the few popular open source formats available to the poorest peoples of the planet, RTF !!
RTF is used worldwide by Scientists, Researchers and others who need a common file exchange format. In other words, Microsoft has (probably intentionally) engineered an embargo against those without the funds to purchase MS-Word, or knowledge of FREE alternative software such as OpenOffice/LibreOffice.
OpenOffice/LibreOffice is a completely FREE office suite available for Windows Mac, and Linux which permits the user to save their files in MS-Word format. Unfortunately, this suite is not nearly as heavily advertised, as is common with FREE products, and more times than I can remember, people I've known who could barely afford food or veterinary bills have indebted themselves to purchase MS-Word because they believed they needed it for work, when in fact they could have used a lower priced or even free word processor with the ability to save files in that apparently necessary format.
It isn't bad enough that MS-Word refuses to open files saved in OpenOffice/LibreOffice format, but now they have rendered useless the one format that stood between them and world domination. Well played, Microsoft, but maybe too late for you now that ever more people are becoming aware of Linux and the multitudes of quality free software that exists for it. I await the day that our tax dollars are no longer frittered away on MS operating systems and software.
Here's the MS-Bug story:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/advisory/2953095
They are now informing people that there is a "bug" in Microsoft Word which could permit hackers to execute malicious code remotely. Their solution? BRACE YOURSELF; They are advising people to DISABLE MS Word's ability to open of files formatted in one of the few popular open source formats available to the poorest peoples of the planet, RTF !!
RTF is used worldwide by Scientists, Researchers and others who need a common file exchange format. In other words, Microsoft has (probably intentionally) engineered an embargo against those without the funds to purchase MS-Word, or knowledge of FREE alternative software such as OpenOffice/LibreOffice.
OpenOffice/LibreOffice is a completely FREE office suite available for Windows Mac, and Linux which permits the user to save their files in MS-Word format. Unfortunately, this suite is not nearly as heavily advertised, as is common with FREE products, and more times than I can remember, people I've known who could barely afford food or veterinary bills have indebted themselves to purchase MS-Word because they believed they needed it for work, when in fact they could have used a lower priced or even free word processor with the ability to save files in that apparently necessary format.
It isn't bad enough that MS-Word refuses to open files saved in OpenOffice/LibreOffice format, but now they have rendered useless the one format that stood between them and world domination. Well played, Microsoft, but maybe too late for you now that ever more people are becoming aware of Linux and the multitudes of quality free software that exists for it. I await the day that our tax dollars are no longer frittered away on MS operating systems and software.
Here's the MS-Bug story:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/advisory/2953095