> But then people would not see the need to upgrade to the latest version
> of Word -- since the latest is almost invariably incompatible with other
> versions, everybody has to shell out another $largeAmount bucks for an
> "upgrade".  I very much understand how it is in the interest of MS to do
> this -- but only a monopolist can do things like this.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the quote from Bill Gates about how bringing 
out a new version for the sake of fixing bugs is ridiculous.
Cf. the browsers wars - no-one (in the bulk of the end-user population) cared 
which browser was faster or more efficient, just which could boast the 
greater number of `features'. Mind you this could have been due to the fact 
that they only had two alternatives - both of which were playing the same 
game.


> Enter LaTeX.
LaTeX is great. However you can't get past the fact that most people wouldn't 
get very far with it. Some people just don't get it.


David