In his Sept. 11 column [ This eWEEK, “Beware the Windows Monoculture”], Scot Petersen wrote about the interoperability argument [in reference to Ryan Naraines article in that issue on the Windows monoculture].
Its true that half a million subscribers dont need to know or care what platform runs Salesforce.com, but I can post a .doc or .xls file on a Web site or in e-mail and expect that it can be opened. Microsoft is doing everything in its power to retain its hegemony over document formats.
Until Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org, Writely and others can exchange documents without downloading and cobbling in a half-baked conversion utility, interoperability will remain an issue.
Anthony E. Scandora, Jr.
AES Systems
Wheaton, Ill.
Listen to this article