On Friday 05 January 2007 17:39 Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | As Microsoft prepares the biggest update ever of its ubiquitous
> | Office software suite, it is once again fending off charges of using
> | hardball business tactics to muscle out competitors.
> |
> | [...]
> |
> | Massachusetts is not alone in realizing that proprietary document
> | formats pose a problem for cross platform organizations.
> |
> | "Public administrations and regulated businesses were worried about
> | meeting Freedom of Information requirements if documents were stored
> | in a long-extinct proprietary data format," says John McCreesh,
> | marketing project lead for OpenOffice.org.
> |
> | The international community has yet to decide on a standard document
> | format, though recent trends see ODF gaining ground. Seven nations
> | (Brazil, France, Germany, Belgium, Croatia, Norway and Demark)
> | have recognized ODF and the need for open standards for all
> | government documents.
> |
> | Microsoft's intentions notwithstanding, multiple standards mean
> | added headaches for the competition. Rival online productivity
> | suites like Zoho, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, which are quickly
> | gaining popularity, and open-source desktop apps Sun Microsystem's
> | OpenOffice all currently support ODF and not OOXML.
> |
> | "Zoho will have to support both formats and will do it going
> | forward," says Zoho's Raju Vegesna. "While we support standards,
> | we also have to look at practicality."
> |
> | "If we were to choose a format, we would pick ODF," says
> | Vegesna.
> `----
>
>
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/software/0,72403-0.html?tw=wn_technology_7";
"Microsoft's campaign against ODF can largely be chalked up to fear of being
left behind by one of its most lucrative customer bases -- the government
and institution sector. In fact, only when Massachusetts proposed ODF as
the default file format for its state agencies in 2005 did Microsoft move
to submit Open XML as an alternative standard"
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