On Fri, August 31, 2007 9:17 am, Frank Cox wrote: >> But, now I've just found out how DIRTY M$ is in doing their business. > This is news? > > Actually, I really fail to see the reason for all of the outrage and fur > flying around this issue. > > I don't use and have no use for MS software. > ... > I know little about what MS does, and I care substantially less than that. > ...Their actions are irrelevant, in my humble opinion.
Sorry, but this is a very myopic and dangerous attitude. File formats are the only real reason why the Microsoft monopoly still exists. Closed or not documented file formats are a terribly stupid and dangerous idea no matter who creates them. File formats are alphabets. software programs are pens. As long as only free as in freedom alphabets are used, it doesn't really matter if the pens are free or not. It doesn't matter if you or I personally have no use for MS _software_ today. Allowing another proprietary format, created on purpose to lock information in, to be labeled "acceptable for use by Public Administrations" (because this is what ISO ratification practically means) is equivalent to: - allowing that all the public digital documents paid with people money and containing data which must always remain completely available, actually are available only as long as one private company exists and is satisfied with how much you can pay them - forcing all the small and big businesses which sell any good or service to those PAs to use OpenXML, that is the whole MS stack, if they want to stay in business. Forcing everybody else, over time, to do the same - and so on and so forth allowing a proprietary format to be labeled as "acceptable for use by Public Administrations" or, if it will be approved, tolerating that Public Administrations use or require it, is an economical, cultural and ethical disaster. For a bit of perspective, you may want to read: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8616 http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8727 and the slideshow " How file formats can be used to favour (or hamper) innovation" from http://old.opendocumentfellowship.org/Articles/Index Tolerating OpenXML is a very, very bad thing. Even if you are still free, for the moment, to not care at all about propietary software Marco -- What *every* family should know about Free Standards and Software: http://digifreedom.net --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
