“A UK Microsoft representative has bizarrely branded Linux and
Linux applications as unreliable and unstable by Microsoft’s own
standards of sturdiness…”
“StarOffice 5.1, produced by Hamburg based company Star
Division, has not only been developed for Windows and OS2, but is
also currently available for Linux and Solaris operating systems.
Also, in the spirit of the open source movement, Star Division has
taken the step of offering the StarOffice Linux application free
from its Web site. StarOffice 5.1 also offers virtually all the
functionality of Microsoft’s Office 2000 application as well as
almost complete compatibility with Microsoft Office file
formats.
“Microsoft’s UK Marketing Manager, Anne Marie Duffy, hit out at
this application saying, “These things are free at a price.
Customers pay in terms of reliability and stability.” Turning her
fire on Linux itself, she added “At Microsoft we spend about
$3bn on development, so our operating system is tested in all
environments. My concern is that if there are so many people
developing Linux, customers will not have confidence that it will
work so well.“