May 23, 2008 6:45 AM PDT
Microsoft's backward route to ODF support
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"Microsoft only does things when it has absolutely no choice, and here it has no choice," Taylor said. "Becta officially recommended that U.K. education doesn't upgrade to Office 2007, and referred Microsoft to the Office of Fair Trading over OOXML last October. The European Commission has confirmed its investigation into OOXML. We've known for a long time the direction the Commission is going, and it's getting more and more vocal."
According to Taylor, Microsoft supporting ODF is a sign both of economic and political pressure.
"If Microsoft doesn't support ODF, it will lose more," said Taylor. "There's also political pressure--in the U.K., central government and various government departments are looking into open source. It's a sign of the times."
Microsoft's not supporting OOXML until Office 14 was "very strange", Taylor added. "It really is left field. It does look like a tacit acknowledgment that the OOXML issue is too hot to handle. After all, the British Standards Institution is in the high court at the moment over it. Maybe this is a calming gesture."
Other members of the open-source community are also skeptical about Microsoft's move.
Pamela Jones, founder of Groklaw, said she will believe Microsoft is moving toward open source only when it provides more proof it is becoming genuinely interoperable.
"I wish I could wholeheartedly applaud the Microsoft announcement about native support for ODF, but I can't," wrote Jones. "Of course, it's better to have native support for ODF, no matter what motives may have influenced Microsoft's announcement, and I'm glad about that for the sake of end users. But it hasn't happened yet. Was the word 'vaporware' not coined for Microsoft? In any case, I'm in the 'I will believe it when I see it' category."
Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.
See more CNET content tagged:
OpenDocument Format,
Jason Matusow,
Microsoft Office 2007,
commission,
interoperability
It is not a standard by any rational definition, buying people off to ignore the proprietary references, contradictions and incomplete specification doesn't count.
Imagine that, a 6000 page format specification and it is incomplete! Only in Redmond.
Exactly!
"Microsoft's not supporting OOXML until Office 14 was "very strange""
Actually, it is not strange at all and I doubt it ever will see the light of day. It is too flawed for use.
Re: "One organization that has been skeptical about Microsoft's interoperability moves in the past has been the European Commission. Following controversy over Microsoft's conduct in pushing through OOXML as an ISO document standard, the Commission announced that it will probe OOXML as part of its ongoing antitrust investigation.
On Thursday, the Commission said it had "taken note" of Microsoft's ODF announcement and would investigate whether the move will improve interoperability.
"The Commission would welcome any step that Microsoft took towards genuine interoperability, more consumer choice, and less vendor lock-in," the Commission said in a statement. "In its ongoing antitrust investigation concerning interoperability with Microsoft, the Commission will investigate whether the announced support of ODF in Office leads to better interoperability and allows consumers to process and exchange their documents with the software product of their choice..." Yup; well, it is like this, assuming all the "technical" standards (noise levels, NDT et cetera, et cetera are met) we now move to the financial and the economic; so, where are the "snapshots" of the past "financial" and "economic" performances (Analysis and Reporting, Decision-Methods...) of "The CONCORDE'S operations"? Are they in REDMOND; or, somewhere in the EU???. Now, welcome to the "1998" Interoperability Standards Party in 2008 "Redmond". :-D :-$
Do ya all remember this famous election campaign slogan - "It Is The Economy -........."! Substituting "the Interoperability" for "the Economy"!
There is an answer. I use it to read, post and even view video online. It is called Linux!
Mark Heinemann