James Walker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in news:43610423.30701
@indianadrafting.com:

> Gee, why am I not suprised you would have something pro MS to say.  
> 
> Defacto standard does not matter, A real standard matters, that is why 
> so many companies (except MS) are happy about ODF.  

I know I should stop -- and I will after this -- but this post is a 
classic example of magical thinking and everything else wrong with some 
OOo advocacy. 

Standards that no one uses (X400, anyone?) are not in any interesting 
sense standards, no matter how they are endorsed. de facto standards are 
real standards. Obviously, the ideal is open, independent, standards that 
everyone uses. But from the point of view of businesses, or networks, the 
most important quality is the third. If my documents and open, indendent, 
and too much trouble for my customers to read, I'm screwed. 

> As long as there 
> are people like you that seem to think it does not matter, then it will 
> not matter.  

No. The emperor is not naked because Chad keeps pointing out he hasn't 
got any clothes on. 

> ODF is OOo default file format, that is not going to 
> change, but the nice thing now is that with OASIS and hopefully ISO 
> standardizing it, it will make life easier on all of us people that do 
> not want to keep buying MS software.

It's not really a matter of wanting. Buying software, like everything 
else, involves tradeoffs. The whole point of OOo is that it's not just 
another linux circle jerk but has some chance of breaking through into 
the world of people who don't care who makes things so long as they work. 
Don't forget that the one over-riding aim of OOo 2.0 was to improve 
interoperability with MS Office. This has been documented right from the 
start of the development process, and it is the one thing that the 
developers have delivered. 



-- 
Andrew Brown
The email in the header does not work.
Contact details and possibly useful macros from
http://www.darwinwars.com/lunatic/bugs/oo_macros.html


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