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Which is More Important: Open File Format or Free Software?
,----[ Quote ]
| For the sake of free software, please help defend Taiwan from Microsoft's
| docx file format invasion. Please help odf plugin for firefox more than you
| do with the docx plugin. Otherwise, you could be hurting open file format as
| you contribute to one controversial piece of free software, and ultimately
| hurt the entire FS landscape as a whole.
|
| This title sounds like a silly question. Open file formats serve everybody
| (except the monopolist), free software users and proprietary software users
| alike. Free software typically supports open file formats by default, and
| then maybe also some popular proprietary file format by necessity. Is there
| ever a situation where supporting/writing free software hurts open file
| format?
`----
http://blog.ofset.org/ckhung/index.php?post/08cb
Review: Open-Source Office Suites Compared
,----[ Quote ]
| In this review I've taken a look at OpenOffice.org's most recent release,
| along with the commercially-supported StarOffice from Sun, IBM's reworking of
| OO.o as Lotus Symphony, the KOffice suite for Linux, and the minimal but
| still useful AbiWord. Talking about how these would entirely replace
| Microsoft Office would be misleading, since not everyone might be doing
| that -- so I've looked at each product as far on its own merits as possible.
`----
http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterpriseapps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212201932
OOXML (and by association Microsoft Office) is tainted by unprecedented
corruption. Everything that touches it is likely to be equally corrupt (or
just naive).
Recent:
Committee to ensure ODF apps conform to standard
,----[ Quote ]
| The Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards
| (Oasis), which fights for open standards for information, has formed a new
| committee to advance the OpenDocument Format (ODF).
`----
http://www.techcentral.ie/article.aspx?id=12784
Computers Of The World, Unite!
,----[ Quote ]
| For the first time in memory, technology standards have become a discussion
| topic at legislative hearings, on the U.S. presidential campaign trail and at
| E.U. regulatory meetings. Why the scrutiny? Shouldn't we trust that computer
| companies will always have the public interest at heart? Won't we always be
| able to open and read electronic documents?
`----
http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/11/14/computer-standards-compatibility-oped-cx_rs_1117sutor.html
Microsofts Launches New Live Search to Improve Social Interaction
,----[ Quote ]
| But the company objective is certainly to retain not only visitor for as long
| as possible, but also to their market share in Web advertising, and
| specifically with regards to their new, free online office productivity suite
| that will compete with Google's own product, which is currently oriented
| towards open source document formats such as ODT (Open Document Text), also
| supported by the OpenOffice.org suite.
`----
http://www.isedb.com/db/articles/1920/1/Microsofts-Launches-New-Live-Search-to-Improve-Social-Interaction/Page1.html
Related:
New doubts about ISO's fast-track standardisation of Microsoft OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| An internal document of the International Standards Organization (ISO) that
| found its way late last week on to the Wikileaks whistle-blower platform
| raises further questions about the choice of a fast-track certification for
| Microsoft's OOXML document format. The paper, by Joint Technical Committee
| No. 1 (JTC 1) of the Geneva standards organization, which dates back to July
| 2007, says the fast track procedure chosen for certifying Microsoft's
| document format is only intended for the acceptance of unaltered standards
| and that a standard not accepted in its original form, while not to be
| regarded as "2nd class" or illegitimate, should be put through the normal
| five-stage standardisation process, should necessary corrections be
| identified in advance. The fast-track process, it says, is intended for
| making changes to an original draft.
`----
http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/New-doubts-about-ISO-s-fast-track-standardisation-of-Microsoft-OOXML--/111065
Puppet countries leaves P membership
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Puppet countries are leaving the P membership. Lebanon, Turkey,
| Cyprus, and Trinidad & Tobago have already dropped out. All those countries
| voted Yes without comments to OOXML.
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-59702/puppet-countries-leaves-p-membership
Martin Bryan: we are getting “standardization by corporation”
,----[ Quote ]
| A November informative report of Martin Bryan, Convenor, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34
| WG1 highlights the fallout of the ECMA-376 fast-track process for ISO. He
| says he is 'glad to be retiring before the situation becomes impossible'
|
| [...]
|
| In what is an astonishingly outspoken report, Martin Bryan, Convenor, ISO/IEC
| JTC1/SC34 WG1 has given us insight into the total mess that Microsoft/ECMA
| have caused during their scandalous, underhand and unremitting attempts to
| get - what is a very poorly written specification {i.e. DIS 29500 aka OOXML,
| AR} - approved as an ISO standard. …
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-30107/martin-bryan:we-are-getting-standardization-by-corporation
Microsoft accused of stacking ISO committee
,----[ Quote
| In a memo sent following his last meeting as head of the working group on
| WG1, which is handling Microsoft’s application to make the Word format an ISO
| standard as ECMA 376, outgoing Governor Martin Bryan (above), an expert on
| SGML and XML, accused the company of stacking his group.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1777
EU Commission Investigating Microsoft's MSOOXML Push
,----[ Quote ]
| I hope they think to investigate the smear campaigns that seem to always
| happen to anyone on the other side from Microsoft. What happened to Peter
| Quinn was by no means unique.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080208151410252
Software wars
,----[ Quote ]
| Allegations of committee-stuffing, the outcome of votes overridden by
| political appointees, a final decision that many involved consider tainted:
| this may sound like a discredited election in some third world country. But
| it is actually a description of an ugly fight over international technical
| standards that wrapped up this week. Microsoft came out on top, but at the
| cost of tarnishing its reputation and the credibility of an important
| back-room process that oils the wheels of many global industries.
`----
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c9743360-01a8-11dd-a323-000077b07658,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Fc9743360-01a8-11dd-a323-000077b07658.html%3Fnclick_check%3D1&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.computerworlduk.com%2Ftool
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