I don't see businesses shifting towards Googles cloud computing model. Personal computer users maybe, but not business. I think the greatest potential beneficiary would be Open Office.

Microsoft no longer a player in word processing? Really? Don't you think that is a little bit of a stretch there? This is Microsoft and this is a legal hurdle and they have been through hundreds of them just the same. They aren't going to yank Word from the shelves any time in our lifetime.

I don't think Google's product is appropriate for most businesses. It lacks many important features, and there is a lag in its use, even with a high-speed Internet connection.

I think OpenOffice is much more likely to benefit from Microsoft's misfortune. Although OpenOffice also lacks a few features, has some clumsiness in its user interface, and is slightly sluggish, it's much farther along in its development. If Word becomes unavailable, I believe many businesses will turn to OpenOffice as the alternative.

Jonathan said: "They aren't going to yank Word from the shelves any time in our lifetime."

IMHO, this is similar to a comment made by Bill Gates (OS/2 Programmers Guide, November 1987): "I believe OS/2 is destined to be the most important operating system, and possibly program, of all time." It sounds good but "it ain't necessarily so".

In response to what Jonathan said: "They aren't going to yank Word from the shelves any time in our lifetime."

If the court gives them no other option, then they will. Just because it's a widely used product doesn't mean Microsoft can break the law. If they have indeed done so and choose to not comply, the courts have power over them just like they do anyone else in their jurisdiction.

If they must, MSFT could buy i4i. I don't think we have to worry too much about MSFT in the near term. There is value to businesses being able to assume their employees know common pieces of software. If the office applications market fragments, productivity will decline.

I haven't used word processing software in years. In my mind Excel is the cornerstone of Microsoft's Office Suite followed by Outlook and Power Point. Word is long past it's prime and is less and less relevant in business today.

MS Office is inferior to a free product OpenOffice.org. Along with the ever improving online word processors, spreadsheet, presentation etc apps, MS Office (including Word) is a dinosaur purchased only by those who are too narrow minded and set in there ways, to evaluate where their budget goes or how to better integrate with 3rd parties. Ultimately, those business entities are as archaic as the software they use and are first in line for a depression era cull.

Never, ever happen. MS has too much invested in Word/Office. They will retool it if needed, but they most likely will settle with i4i for a goodly sum and go on their way.
And Google docs is not a Word substitute. Open Office, perhaps, but not Google. Too many people can't risk loosing their word processor when their internet goes down.

Umm, am I missing something here? Although it may be to the detriment of some certain customers, could not Microsoft simply go back to its "proprietary" .doc format and drop this .docx, XML crap altogether? I, for one, see no distinct advantage in XML, and lamented the fact that the default file storage format was changed.

I guess I'm a luddite, however, because I'm still happy with Windows XP, too...

I am inclined to disagree with the comments indicating OpenOffice would be a better alternative than Google Docs. In *many* business environments, MS Word is used as nothing more than Notepad with a prettier interface. Users simply type and format their documents and they're done. This can be achieved online with Google docs, and there is no need to install software on the local machine as with OpenOffice. Also, Google Docs users have the option to log in from home and edit their documents without needing remote access software or a secure VPN. It has been my experience that business users who are used to MS Word generally HATE OpenOffice, for reasons unknown.

If they must, MSFT could buy i4i.

And if i4i does NOT want to sell? There is no eminent domain, especially corporate versions in Patent law.

There is a large pike of Kodak Instant cameras rusting away on an island somewhere when they infringed Polaroid's patents.

They respond to viruses and bugs all the time. They could send a patch whenever they wanted to remove the menu item, or unlink the calls to the Custom XML section of Word.

If you read the decisions, Microsoft's misconduct is also at issue. The higher courts can only overturn something if they find a mistake, not if they feel like it. And i4i could also appeal.

The office application market is already fragmented - by all the useless new features and the whimsical changes Microsoft does in every "new" version of Word, dropping support for the earlier version. Or keeping the Mac versions out of sync.

You don't want fragmentation - go with OpenOffice which evolves slowly if at all. No worry about licenses, single sourcing, standards compliance, or the other productivity killers.

Google Docs is good for collaboration and other times it helps to have things "in the cloud".

"In your mind" Oh Steve95703 what a merry engineering world you live in.

Microsoft Word has destroyed every other word processing product ever and its pretty much what everyone uses now when they want to write a document. The xml file format is a huge improvement for the product. If Microsoft has to it will

a) stop selling the product until it can settle
b) settle

the i4i Chairdude has already said publically that he doesn't want to stop Word, he just wants to hear the sweet >>Ka-ching

Yes, I believe the other posters are right Sun's Open office is the most poised right now to take over the word processing. I don't think it matters much though, businesses could just switch back to an older version. I believe it is about time to end the M$ monopoly.

To say that MS will have to pull Word because of an opening salvo in a legal battle (regardless of the validity or lack thereof of the suit) is like saying that Michael Phelps will lose a swim meet because there is a bit of water in his path.

Microsoft wants to continue making money at the expense of another company's intectual property rights which Microsoft had blatantly stolen and it's no big surprise because Microsoft would do anything to prop up their company which is becoming more and more irrelevant each day.

As a very early long term associate of Alan Ashton and a very minor contributor to WordPerfect, I must now tell the truth that I had built a more responsive word proceesor for Alan on a 16k byte machine in 1970 than Word is now.

A very old version of WordPerfect 4.7 is far more than adequate for most word processing. Let us go back to the old programs and use them.

Alan Ashton gave Bill a profit on every copy of WordPerfect sold because MS Dos was also on almost every WordPerfect machine. Most users did not even use MS DOS directly ever. ..RB..

No problem, we still have openoffice, zero cost and free software.

Google Apps? You've got to be kidding. I used it for a few months - worked GREAT at first. Then they kept on "upgrading" features, breaking most of them in the process (the export feature was particularly broken the last few times I used it, and that's what pushed me back to Word 2007.)

I also dropped OpenOffice after several years of use. When I have to repeatedly kill a rogue process sucking up 95% of CPU after I've exited an app, I uninstall.

One thing glossed over here is the fact that Microsoft pushed OOXML down the throats of ISO to get it standardized while it knew full well of the lawsuit by i4i. Heck - e-mail evidence during the trial showed that MS knew in 2001 it was violating the patent but decided to go ahead anyway and add the ability to store custom XML data via the same methodology.

When I first heard about the lawsuit, I was willing to give MS the benefit of the doubt - especially since the legal venue was the infamous East Texas federal district court. But now knowing that MS intentionally incorporated the feature while knowing i4i had patented it, and not disclosing the fact that they were being sued while pursuing the ISO standards process - a requirement by the ISO - they deserve every punishment put forth in this case.

It's one thing to be against software patents, as I am in this case, but MS truly thought they could game the system...

"if Microsoft was no longer a player in word processing?"

As likely as supersonic flying pigs. (grin)

So Google docs has like 8 fonts, no cut/copy and paste you cant even print to a friggin envelope. This is going to kill Word or WordPad?

"This would put a chink in what has been an unassailable armor in Word, the cornerstone for Microsoft Office, commanding more than 90 percent of the productivity software market."

90% might as well read 100%. The other 10% are the people that don't have money to pay. Or it is accounting for Macs small rise on their laptops due to the success of iPods. Plus everyone using a mac finally gives in and runs parallels to use the real MS office anyway.

Open Office is great if you like MS 98 Office. Not very cutting edge if you ask me.

Cloud computing will diminish costs, but advertising will only go so far in the work place.

A very small chink indeed.

Hail Hitler! MS is here to stay... wait a minute.

What about IBM's free Symphony office suite. I have been using it for awhile and it makes a good substitute for MS Word and Excel