> > Because you don't use content management systems very often. > What does that have to do with an office suite format?
Why would MS be proposing to change their default file format to XML if the only thing that mattered was to meet the needs of their office suite? The whole reason that governments are interested in XML formats is that they enhance interoperability on the Internet between applications. Well they do if they don't have proprietary binary elements embedded in them like land mines. Most governements have policies now on interoperability. That is a good reason why governments will reject MS-XML and accept ODF. MS might well be forced to support ODF, a bitter pill to swallow but possibly less bitter than accelerating the migration to competitors that do support it. Glad I'm not having to make that decision :-) ODF is indeed a bigger issue than OpenOffice.org in the whole scheme of things. OOo is a suite of applications that operate on OD files and its true that its the biggest and most important set of application. However many other applications will spring up that operate on ODF files, some proprietary some open source, and many of these will not be office suites. Content management systems virtual learning environments, viewers, web site authoring tools. ODF is a logical development end point to HTML, XHTML and XML. It will keep the Internet open. If MS-XML is allowed to do that, MS will monopolise the Internet in the same way as they have monopolised the office suite. To say you don't care about ODF simply demonstrates that you fail to grasp the bigger picture. Fortunately governments around the world are begining to realise the importance of all this. -- Ian Lynch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ZMSL --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
