The anecdote about margins and fonts is however a wonderful demonstration of
the difference between being 'the document' oriented and being 'the computer
system' oriented. The software doesn't serve you it serves Microsoft's view of
owning the computer platform and definition of document.
Now
they want to extend that view to the entire web. Not sure I'd want to use a word
processor where my views on formatting are treated more as guidelines,
actually.
Microsoft appears to try to merge definitions of document (1b "an
original or official paper relied on as the basis, proof, or support of
something" and 3 "a computer file containing information input by a computer
user and usually created with an application (as a word processor)"), while for
legal purposes electronic documents are accepted "as filed and attested",
markedly in a different and more open format albeit with more rigid rules on
fonts, spacing, margins.
You can't help but wonder if Google doesn't have a
stack of improvements for Google Docs waiting in the wings for the determination
of when and what to set free for free or pay. Microsoft may be more like the
mouse to competition's cat than a gruff bull dog. The basic problem Microsoft
has is that the world doesn't need to pay for their version of the web or the
Cloud, and it isn't susceptible to Microsoft's historic bag of tricks for
dealing with competition.
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