That's an advantage of commodities and it applies to data formats as much
as to electricity.
Buyers (that's us) like a market where services, data, and protocols are
interchangeable. Sellers dislike it, though beyond the short term they
benefit from it, too.
We've seen the benefit from open architecture hardward for PCs, making
them a commodity. We've seen the benefit from the web, with data in
commodity formats. We've seen (or could if we look) the benefit from
commodity protocols like TCP/IP and GSM.
We've also seen that the decades previous of non-commodity formats and
protocols didn't really go anywhere and eventially, with only a few
exceptions, vanished.
Web-based office suites run the risk, if done poorly or incorrectly, of
de-commoditizing protocols, formats and services -- especially that last
one. De-commoditization of all three has been a stated goal of MS in it's
fight against the public. [1]
In contrast, OOo hits a sweetspot by using both open source and open
formats. The former means you're not dependent on any one vendor,
developer or support provider. The latter means you're not dependent even
on OpenOffice.org.
-Lars
[1] http://archive.salon.com/21st/rose/1998/11/04straight.html
Lars Nooden ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Software patents endanger the legal certainty of software.
Keep them out of the EU by writing your MEP, keep the market open.
On Thu, 23 Feb 2006, Nicolas Mailhot wrote:
In this case however you all seem to forget electricity is composed of
interchangeable and anonymous electrons while :
1. you need access to your data not someone else's
2. you want your data to be protected from other users
[snip]
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