Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:20:40 -0500
Reply-To: Sigurd Hermansen <HERMANS1@WESTAT.COM>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Sigurd Hermansen <HERMANS1@WESTAT.COM>
Subject: Re: numbers "that look like" characters in Excel to SAS
In-Reply-To: <200701312102.l0VL2Odi061766@viergever.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I guess one could say that WB is displaying a populist streak, although
defending IBM and Apple against MS barely qualifies ;>
It seems ironic that except for populist sentiments backed by antitrust
pressure, IBM could have crushed MS in the bud. Now MS is feeling the
pressure.
MS has brought OS licensing fees down to the benefit of all. But why
does SAS have to favor MS installations of SAS with much higher
licensing fees for free or almost free Linux? SAS appears to be giving
an unfair competitive advantage to the largest oligarchy on the planet.
Talk about unfair use of market power!
Did someone say 'good wine'?
S
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-sas-l@listserv.uga.edu [mailto:owner-sas-l@listserv.uga.edu]
On Behalf Of William W. Viergever
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 4:02 PM
To: Alan Churchill; SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: numbers "that look like" characters in Excel to SAS
At 06:47 AM 1/31/2007, Alan Churchill wrote:
>No one forces you to use Excel. There are plenty of programs that can
>read and write to Excel format. The government does not mandate Excel
>usage: this isn't ATT.
>
>This reminds me of the QWERTY/Dvorak keyboard debate, VHS vs betaMax,
>etc. ad nauseum. Microsoft became dominant because their stuff worked
>better than anyone else's.
alan:
although i agree w/ your 1st paragraph totally, and somewhat the 2nd
(like the 1st sentence only), let me point out that:
<soap-box on>
M$ screwed IBM (who let them), and indirectly Lotus & WordPerfect when
Bill Gates did his Comdex 90 or 91 opener by releasing Word 1.0 and
Excel 3.0 for Windows, OS/2 and the Mac ... AND saying that M$'s
"flagship" products would always run on these three platforms ...
all the while not fulfilling their contractual obligations, at least in
the spirit thereof, for co-developing OS/2 and putting most of their
efforts instead into Windows
now ... setting the Way Back Machine for MA & UT ... we see Lotus &
WordPerfect trying, desperately, to play catch-up by developing GUI apps
for OS/2 ... which,a s mentioned above, was a doomed path (take your
pick: OS/2 was doomed OR M$ wasn't going to release more current version
of Excel & Word for OS/2)
AND
with M$ doing their best not to release all relevant Windows info
(APIs?), in timely manner, Lotus & WordPerfect were always at least one
rev behind on the Windows front as well ...
so the MA & UT crews were screwed, too
AND
personally
after beta-ing OS/2 SAS (under Dave Brummit, RIP) & going w/ OS/2 SAS
(vs. PC SAS) and Lotus/WP (cuz there were no M$ OS/2 apps when i
switched from DESQview/DOS to OS/2) i later made the switch from
Lotus/WordPerfect to Excel/Word (for as you say, they were better apps
given the GUI's and other features), somewhat assuaged by Bill Gates
COMDEX perjury, AT GREAT EXPENSE, not only in $$ but in re-writing &
testing extensive Lotus & WP macros
suffice it to say, i am NOT a big M$ fan
just my $0.02
</soap-box off>
out
>Their stuff still works better which is why they lead the market. And
>just when folks said they are down for the count, out comes Office 2007
>which completely changed the playing field. Face it: they are good at
>what they do. I admire companies that ram it down the throat of their
>competitors. Vicious but fair competition.
>
>You have loads of choices out there. Use Google's new spreadsheet or
>the Open Office stuff.
>
>Alan Churchill
>Savian "Bridging SAS and Microsoft Technologies" www.savian.net
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>ben.powell@CLA.CO.UK
>Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 2:56 AM
>To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: numbers "that look like" characters in Excel to SAS
>
>Or the defacto standard brought about by a monopoly?
>
>On Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:21:16 -0700, Alan Churchill <SASL001@SAVIAN.NET>
>wrote (in part):
>
> >Excel is THE most *popular* tool in the world for manipulating data.
>[...]
> >
> >Alan
> >
> >
> >Alan Churchill
> >Savian "Bridging SAS and Microsoft Technologies" www.savian.net
---------------------------------------------------
William W. Viergever
Viergever & Associates
Health Data Analysis / Systems Design & Development
Sacramento, CA 95825
william@viergever.net
(916) 483-8398
---------------------------------------------------
