>>Indeed I agree there a jobs out there for Orcale (which I know), etc...but heck 90% of the time you even have to send your resume in MS Word Format. Face it...if your in the computer biz you're NOT going to have a choice, you're going to HAVE to have some type of MS knowledge and products. Unless you want to work on mainframes or something you're never going to find a job without some MS skills, right?..and for that matter even those people are going to shy away from you.
>>and yes it's somewhat hypocritical - hense the term "monopoly"!
>
>As anti-Microsoft as the Linux/Java/Oracle world is, I would be surprised if they insisted on MS Word. Even if they do, check out StarOffice from Sun.

Anti-Microsoft? That's because they've had to pay for a product they didn't want when they purchased a PC, or get an off-brand or roll their own, something MS is working hard on to eliminate as I write this. EVEN NOW, after the two trials and the 'punishment' phase (what a mockery of the law) Dell announces that becasue of their August 1st License agreement with Microsoft they cannot sell a PC without an OS or with Linux. The last line of Dell's email to their customers said that all of other PC OEMs were under the same agreement. So, Dell pull a sneeky one --they are selling PCs to folks who want Linux by including a copy of FreeDos with it. Unfortunately, the price of the PC includes the Microsoft Tax. That's why I hope that Wlamart has great success in selling truely naked PCs, or PCs with Linux installed if the customer so wishes. Either way, Walmart doesn't include the MS tax.

What would you do if, in the course of your business, you drove your car to a gas station franchise and the gas franchise owner made you sign an agreement before he would sell you gas. The agreement dictated who you could carry in your car, and who you couldn't. It further dictated where you could go and what business you could do in or with the car. And, you couldn't say anthing about the agreement to anyone else. You could go to another gas station but their distillery is in another country and the gas station owner has won't let carsgo near the boat yards where the tanker dock, so people have to carry it into the country by hand, or through home-made plumbing, which the franchise owner is trying to get outlawed, because he claims that plumbing violates his "Intellectual Property".
WOuld that make you mad?
JLK