US Court bans MS from selling Word and Office!

[Dutch_Master]

Steve Ballmer is going to have a seizure

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8427474.stm

Microsoft said the ban would prohibit the sale of all available versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office software.

Now that those who're breaking the law are no longer calling the shots in US politics, the US Justice system can do justice afterall

(expect stocks in wood, woodworking factories and especially furniture makers to reach historical heights in the next few days )

[johnhudson]

They also said they have been quietly preparing alternative versions.

[ollie]

This has been on the cards since August and considering the original injunction was supposed to come in to effect in October the 8 week delay hasn't affected Microsoft's Christmas sales. That would have caused a massive impact as Dell, HP, et al., as they were prevented from bundling Microsoft Office 2007 with their major selling season.

I like how XML has become a "little-used feature from these products" considering it was the major selling point for Office 2007 and the push for ISO/IEC 29500:2008. It's also interesting that ODF doesn't infringe this patent, so if Microsoft had done what was actually requested by governments and customers (use ODF file formats) they wouldn't be in this position and might have saved $290 million.