On Friday 07 July 2006 01:04, John Jason Jordan wrote: > On Thu, 6 Jul 2006 17:52:57 -0400 > > "Fred A. Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> dijo: > > http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6090912.html?tag=nl.e539 > > I note it says: > > "The conversions will be based on Microsoft's Open Office XML" > > So is this another "embrace and destroy" tactic? Why does MS need its > own version of OpenDocument?
As I understand it, MS have released some code under a BSD license. This means that they can take any changes that FOSS developers make to read the ODF correctly, but MS are under no obligation to release any bug fixes with respect to their OpenXML format. And I hear that it is a plug-in that converts from ODF to OX, and not the other way round. That means that MS can claim that only they have a good converter, and try to claim that ODF is no good because no one else has been able to do the job as well. They will still not have released a specification of OX that is freely useable, but will have ripped off any work the FOSS community has done. I wouldn't have anything to do with this. There is more discussion at http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060706064747376 -- Andy Pepperdine On this mailing list help is provided by volunteers. Please subscribe to the mailing list to see all the replies to a query, and reply only to the mailing list at [EMAIL PROTECTED] For FAQ, userguide, see: http://documentation.openoffice.org/ For more information about the OOo licence here: http://www.openoffice.org/license.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
