[luau] Single Source Suppliers / Apple / M$ / WP

[Joe Linux]

I'm a retired school teacher, and it's well known that many school
sytems, particularly the Hawaii public schools are hooked into Apple
computer systems.  Years ago I saw a problem with this in that the
schools were tied to a single source supplier.  The schools destiny was
directly tied to Apple.  Whatever Apple offered, the schools had little
choice other than to buy it; because they didn't seem willing to convert
to M$ Windows, and rightfully so.  Apple computers were very easy to
use.  Software and hardware could be counted on to work, and classroom
teachers could have never dealt with the multitude of software and
hardware installation problems associated with the alleged M$ solution.

Nevertheless the schools had to pay a huge premium for this "user
friendliness."  Apple was constantly changing their hardware.  This made
the machines somewhat hard to trouble shoot because because there were
many different "system enablers" that were required to boot a stalled
machine from floppy disk.  We often didn't know which system enabler was
required for which machine and had to go about it by trial and error. 
Moreover, Apple machines have always been over priced and when this was
combined with a constantly changing hardware platform, it didn't really
make good economic sense.  Another issue was the fact that Apple never
really made a good "educational model."  What I mean by this is a
standard form factor computer where parts could easily be swapped out
from one to the other to provide a low cost common hardware platform
that could be easily upgraded without constantly having to buy entire
new machines which were often terribly incompatible with the previous
machines.  The best example of the this are the colored plastic iMacs
that took off all the old ports such as the scusi port, and the ADB port
(Apple Desktop Bus).  Another hang up with the iMacs was the fact that
they had no internal diskette drive, and no true on/off switch. Now
Apple users are faced with a costly switch to OS-X.

Now how does WP figure into this?  It seems that certain people and
professions have become as dependent on WP as the schools have become
dependent on Apple.  They are stuck because they are tied to a single
source supplier.  Their entire businesses are tied into the fate of the
software supplier. But there are outside forces that are beyond our
control.  What can and end user do if Apple pulls the buses off their
machines or Word Perfect has marketing problems or M$ makes a generally
pathetic OS?

I turned to Linux and Open Source.  At least there is competition and
multiple competing vendors.  Additionally the Linux operating system is
not limited to a single source hardware supplier. There are even
multiple GUI desktop environments so there is a lot of freedom of choice
in open source and Linux.

Unfortunately Word Perfect has chosen to drop their Linux effort.  There
is nothing I as an individual can do about it.  I used WordPerfect for
many years and I believe that WordPerfect is significantly better than
any other word processor out there.  But I can't have my cake and eat it
too.  If I dislike M$ and Apple and choose to use Linux, I can't do much
about the fact that WP is for the most part unavailable in a
satisfactory form to run on Linux.  I have to learn to live with an
alternative such as Abiword, Star Office, Open Office, or Crossover Word
(if it would actually run on my machine).

It's all about choices.  If you want Word Perfect, you must be willing
at this point to use Windows.  If you don't like abusive convicted
monopoly software and choose to use Linux you must be willing to
sacrifice Word Perfect.

My inclination at the present time is to use Linux Native software and
learn to live with it.  I feel this will offer the best long term
solution to freedom from single source suppliers who are often
tyrannical in their business practices.