[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
On Mar 22 18:54PM, Tamblyne wrote:
You are overreaching. I don't care what other people do. I believe,On Mar 22 14:04PM, Tamblyne wrote:Why are you so determined to interject your personal preferences on
others?
however, that the computing environment can be better if culture evolves
to accepting open standards, and open standards only.
At first you say you don't care what others do. Then you say they should "only" use open standards. You are contradicting yourself.
A nut-and-bolt manufacture would not stay in business for very long if it only offered proprietary threading.
Open standards drive innovation (e.g. the internet, compatable nut and
bolts, etc.). Unfortunately, the de facto ``standard'' for certain file
formats is controlled by a monopoly. This is what we should reject.
Why does it matter who made the standard? The standard is there. It is a standard that works. It is a standard that everyone, including OpenOffice.org, embraces. I don't use OOo's native format when I use OOo. Why? Because it's basically useless. I can't send it to work (Windows XP / Simply MEPIS at home, with OOo - Mac OS 9.22 at work, no OOo), I can't send it to my non-geek friends. (I have geek friends, who, like me, use OOo, Firefox, Linux, etc. - and non-geek friends who use Windows and MSO.) I can't send it to co-workers. I can't send it to clients. It's a useless "standard". Even convincing a few friends to download OOo isn't going to get them to use this so-called standard. I'll stick with the things everyone can use. Like Docs, PDFs, RTFs, XLS, PPT, TXT, HTML, etc... Nobody without OOo, StarOffice, or AbiWord can use OOo's stuff.
There are those who disagree -- it's called free will and free choice.
You don't get it. Freedom is what's at stake with the ubiquity of proprietary software.
You know, the internet and computer use has gotten along just fine for over a decade with DOCs, PPTs, and no OOo... I think there is nothing to fear from the big, bad Microsoft stealing our freedom with their evil DOC files....
-Chad Smith
