> That is absolutely weak man. If you don't like Word, then don't use it. There are plenty of alternatives. TeX, LaTeX, Abiword, Open Office, Wordpress...
I'm not sure what Wordpress is doing in the list, but the fact is that dealing with Word documents can be pretty much unavoidable (depending on where you work), and they don't always open correctly in Open Office.
Many companies are using Wordpress where MS Word documents were once used before. Giant word documents with cross references that documented procedures are instead replaced by Blogs and Wikis.
Best part about Wordpress / Wikis, is that you get open collaboration, instant publishing, RSS, Emails, and everything. Its the perfect publishing platform.
On the other hand, a number of businesses still pass around Word Documents like the internet hasn't been invented yet. Tell me this, which is easier to collaborate on. A Group-Blog hosted on Wordpress? Or the 20 copies of a Word document that your office is passing around by email?
Enterprise wikis are where documents go to die. Enterprise wikis are 'WORN' - write once, read never. (And edit/refactor even less often than never.)
If I want to know what the spec was six months ago before someone changed it, I'll go check the wiki.
There's little motivation to keep them up-to-date. They are usually sold to companies on the basis of feature lists rather than getting the simple shit right. I can't edit Confluence in text/plain any more.
I'm a Wikipedia admin. We actually know how to use a wiki and there's at least some motivation to make shit presentable because even minor topics are going to have a couple hundred readers each month. There's no such motivation in enterprise wiki-land. I can write a long and detailed document, put it up on the wiki and people still won't read it.
However... its no worse than Word documents rotting away for 10+ years.
Enterprise Wikis, while the project is active, are usually kept up to date decently. When the projects die down a bit and enters "maintenance mode", thats when the real trouble begins.
But the update problem happens exactly the same with Word Documents and classical media.
Also, to ing hell with Confluence. Piece of . But its still easier than emailing Word Documents to everyone and getting lost between the versions.
> On the other hand, a number of businesses still pass around Word Documents like the internet hasn't been invented yet. Tell me this, which is easier to collaborate on. A Group-Blog hosted on Wordpress? Or the 20 copies of a Word document that your office is passing around by email?
You won't find in me a staunch defender of collaboration via Word documents (or of Word in general). However, the fact that Wordpress and Word share a relatively small use case doesn't mean Wordpress is a viable Word replacement, otherwise I'd point out that you could just as well setup a private Git repo and collaborate that way.
I'm not sure what Wordpress is doing in the list, but the fact is that dealing with Word documents can be pretty much unavoidable (depending on where you work), and they don't always open correctly in Open Office.