PowerPoint seems to be pretty much the only M$ stronghold left in the
astronomical community, where both long-standing Unix practice and more
recent Linux availability have largely kept M$ "out of the door".
M$ so-called "commercial strategy", actually boiling down to the practice
of secreting and constantly changing its file formats (as summarized
here
by Richard Stallman), together
with difficulties and delays in the creation of efficient free software
presentation tools has so far prevented the casual user from taking this
last step.
I feel it's now a suitable time for this "quantum leap".
Not only different ways exist to create PowerPoint-like presentations
using free and freely available software
(see e.g. my page dedicated to free computer-based
presentations), but the number of free
software users appears to have reached that "critical mass"
guaranteeing a future development/feedback virtous circle.
These considerations, and more generally the
philosophy
underlying the free software movement, urges anyone interested in
allowing free access to high-quality software to drop use of any
proprietary (and particularly M$) software products.
