Pay per use MS Office on the way?

A Church article with View Comments posted 27 December 2008.
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This article is #7 in the 8 part series Freedom Software and the Church

A new Microsoft patent application was noticed by someone on Slashdot today. They want to offer Microsoft Office services on a pay-as-you-go basis. I took the liberty of fixing it so that everyone can see what this could eventually mean for the church.

microsoft-per-sermon

If you go with a system like this, you are dependent on the future availability of a particular online service offered by a particular company (not to mention your ability to pay!) for the continued availability of your data. On the other hand, if you use open-standards based freedom software like OpenOffice.org, you’ll always have free access to your work because no corporation can hold your data hostage. Just another reason to pick open standards and freedom software as often as you can for church work.