Andy Pepperdine wrote:
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
The first link has this in it.
The software, developed by a France-based Microsoft partner, will
allow people to use Microsoft Office to open and save documents in
the OpenDocument, or ODF, format.
This is a step in the right direction. Of course, there are other
plug-ins in the works to do similar things. MS sees that they must
compete now that there are states and countries moving to ODF.
--
Robin Laing
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