[adorno]

I’m a fan of MS and I will be using alternatives, like Open office.

I've tried to use Open Office, and my experience has always been that, it's second best and apparently will always be second best. The price can't be beat.

However, pertaining to using Microsoft software, there is no reason to use Microsoft software all the time, and perhaps certain we can split the types of software that we do use to include several makes and vendors. So, maybe we don't have to used IE and Opera might be a good alternative (I will never trust Google, and thus, Chrome is out of the question). We also don't have to use Hotmail, and Yahoo mail can be a good substitute. All we need to do is to use as few MS applications as possible, as long as there are adequate alternatives.

The problem with this idea is that, the vast majority of people won't be familiar with the DOMA issue, or won't care about the issue, since, to most, it's not something that affects them directly. To them, it's always somebody else's problem, although they are directly and indirectly affected by any regulations which affect businesses and increase the cost of goods and services, and changes the ethical and moral and religious and cultural rules which have guided societies since forever.

[BenKenobi]

I don’t see anywhere that MS is better than Open office for any of the work that I do. I can’t/won’t drop my hotmail account, because I’ve had it now for close to 15 years.

But as for the rest, I’m open to it.

“primary financial support for the browser came through revenue from Google (which is by contract Opera’s default search engine”

Sorry, Opera’s not an option. Just Google by another name.