Johan Vromans wrote:
Microsoft has said that they will support OpenDocument in MS Office if
there is customer demand for it.
I must say that I really don't know whether this would be a good or a
bad thing.
I can easily imagine Microsoft supporting OpenDocument to the extent
that it nearly works, and then OOo will get the blame when documents
cannot be read properly.
Microsoft may try that, and they might succeed. But this is a lot less
likely than it was in the 90's because:
* People don't trust Microsoft now. They are under the radar of a lot of
world governments, and people expect them to try dirty tricks.
* Hiding things in the internet era is more difficult.
* OOo is the reference implementation of ODF.
* OOo has a larger market share than MS Office 2003.
* ODF is already supported by KOffice, SO, IBM workplace, and soon by
Abiword ang Gnumeric.
Then weigh this against the benefits. Microsoft currently blames OOo for
not being able to open MS Office files completely. Supporting ODF can
only help interoperability, not harm it.
And I notice you focused on "should MS support ODF?". Consider the other
benefits of signing the petition. It shows customer demand for
OpenDocument, which in turn can be used to counter Microsoft's argument
that there is no demand, support Massachusett's decision, encourage more
governments to use ODF, and make more people simply *aware* that the
format exists.
So, if Microsoft doesn't support the format as a direct result of the
petition (the most probable outcome), the petition still serves som very
valuable purposes.
In brief, the reason why *you* should sign, and why you should encourage
everyone to sign, is not because you think MS cares about what you
think, but because:
* It makes more people hear about OpenDocument.
* It gives you a leaver to convince governments to suppport it.
* It makes Microsoft's main argument fall apart.
Consider the consequences of people *not* signing:
* Microsoft can say "see? there's no demand".
* You'll find it harder to convince governments.
Which outcome would you prefer?
Cheers,
Daniel.
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