On 11/25/05, Louis Suarez-Potts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Genuine Open-Standard Format for Office Documents Already Available
It's not a standard yet. Neither is MOOX. But claiming that it already is a standard makes it sound like the ISO has already approved it. MOOX and ODF stand just as much chance becoming a true standard. 25 November 2005 > > OpenOffice.org believes that the demand for a genuine open-standard > format for office documents is overwhelming. Users of office software > are coming to realise that their real investment lies not in the > software itself, but in the spreadsheets, databases, and > wordprocessing documents which they have created: their own > intellectual property. The only way to guarantee access to this > investment long term is for the data to be stored in a vendor- > neutral, open-standard format. I agree with this paragraph. Microsoft's announcement on Monday, 21 Nov., that it recognises the > market pressure for open-standard data formats is a welcome > development. And this sentence. But why opt for a new standard? OpenDocument, which > OpenOffice.org uses, is approved by OASIS - the standards body for > XML data formats in business; OASIS is sponsored by all the leading > names in IT, including Microsoft. In addition, OpenDocument was > submitted to the International Standards Organisation (ISO) on 30 > September 2005 for ratification. But not this one. OASIS approval is far from ISO approval. And being submitted to ISO doesn't mean it's going to be accepted. The fact that it's almost 2 months later, and still no word on ISO ratifying it should be evidence enough to prove that. <snip 3 paragraphs about ODF> OpenOffice.org and other open-source projects are well placed to lead > and contribute to the innovation of new e-business applications > utilising the OpenDocument file format specification. > > About OpenOffice.org > > The OpenOffice.org Project is an international community of > volunteers and sponsors including founding sponsor and primary > contributor, Sun Microsystems. OpenOffice.org develops, supports, and > promotes the open-source office productivity suite, OpenOffice.org. > The project can be found at http://www.openoffice.org/. > OpenOffice.org supports the Open Document Format for Office > Applications (OpenDocument) OASIS Standard and is available on major > computing platforms in over 60 languages. OpenOffice.org is provided > under the GNU Lesser General Public Licence (LGPL). > 2 whole paragraphs about OOo. Glad to see the project gets a little bit of press. At least the name is spelled right. In case you've all forgotten, this is OpenOffice.org - not OASIS, and not the Open Document Fellowship or Friends or Foundation. Microsoft's move to attempt to get MOOX approved by ISO is, of course, related to its fears about ODF. And the outcome of ISO's ratification process will have an effect on OOo. However, I think the focus should be how this affects OOo, not getting MS to switch to ODF. ODF or MOOX - if either is approved by ISO, it will have the same effect. Everyone will have access to that format. The fact the MS is pushing MOOX will probably give it an advantage with ISO, since it will singlehandedly have the ability to affect the greatest number of computers in the world. If MSO supports MOOX, most people will be able to use it. And for the "people still use MSO 97" arguement, MS Office can be patched, just like Windows, they could use the patch system to make MOOX work on older versions of MSO. Or they could make a simple filter download, like they did with other formats on their website. People are scared that MS is going to "do something" to MOOX to make it non-compatible with other programs. I don't see how that's possible if it's an open format standardized by ISO. -- - Chad Smith http://www.gimpshop.net/ Because everyone loves free software!
