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Microsoft to support ODF and PDF in Office and standards work
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| Don't get too excited by this outbreak of peace. SP2 isn’t due until the
| first half of 2009, meaning you've got a good year before you can save an
| Office 2007 document using ODF. Ahead of that lies SP1, due at the beginning
| of June.
|
| There is also no word on if, or when, SPs will be delivered that bring ODF
| and PDF to the vast install base of customers and developers working with
| older versions of Office.
|
| Accordingly, the ODF Alliance, the group of vendors and national bodies
| leading ODF, has warned against premature celebrations saying we should wait
| and see what Microsoft actually delivers in SP2. ODF Alliance managing
| director Marino Marcich said the proof of Microsoft’s commitment to openness
| would be whether ODF support is on a par with Open XML.
|
| He pointed to Microsoft's promise two years ago to support ODF, when it
| backed an existing BSD project for an Open XML Translator. The project, to
| deliver an Office add-on to save documents in ODF, is also due in the first
| half of 2009. That software has not been finished, and it’s not clear whether
| today’s announcement for support will use the translator.
|
| “Until Microsoft enables Office users to create and save in ODF by default as
| easily and fully as in Microsoft's own formats, governments will continue to
| adopt a 'buyer beware' attitude,” Marcich said in a statement.
|
| Significantly, Microsoft is not quite ready to give up on its ODF rival, Open
| XML, that it's been busy railroading through standards bodies across the
| globe.
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http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2008/05/21/microsoft_office_pdf_odf/
My take on why Microsoft finally decided to support ODF
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| Indeed, while OOXML has garnered enough votes to pass, several major
| countries including China, India, and Brazil among others, voted against it.
| It is safe to assume that, in accordance with the opinion the expressed
| through this vote, those countries will not adopt OOXML as a national
| standard either. India has already decided so for one. I know the same is
| true for South Africa. The same will probably be true for others.
|
| Now, think about this for a minute. This is a huge market that Microsoft
| cannot address with Office as it stands. Can they really disregard a market
| that size? I don’t think so. If not, what can they do about it?
|
| Well, they can keep trying to fight countries decisions not to adopt OOXML
| but if they haven’t managed to achieve that already, despite all the efforts
| they put in, including some rather unethical if not illegal ones, their
| chances of success on that front are pretty slim.
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http://lehors.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/my-take-on-why-microsoft-finally-decided-to-support-odf/
Microsoft to make Office open to ODF format
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| Ivar Jachwitz, the deputy managing director of Standards Norway, the
| country's national standards setting body which adopted ODF as a recommended
| format for government archives, said the final proof of Microsoft's
| commitment to ODF and interoperability will be seen next year, when the
| updated version of Office 2007 reaches consumers."We have heard a lot of
| promises from Microsoft but as of yet, we are hoping for results," Jachwitz
| said.
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http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/21/technology/msft.php
Microsoft says they will support ODF natively, join OASIS ODF committee?
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| In the interest of providing a bit more to think about beyond what was
| evidently said on this, here are a few open questions:
|
| * What are the plans for supporting ODF 1.2, now reaching completion in
| OASIS?
| * Will it be extraordinarily easy for users to set ODF as the default
| save format so that this becomes regular practice for most people?
| * Will there eventually be backwards native support in versions of Office
| before 2007, or will people need to upgrade?
| * Hey, Apple, what about you? Let’s see you do this in iWork!
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http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=2297
Related:
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| From nathanm Mon Oct 01 11:42:05 1990
| To: billg; bradsi;
| Subject: SPARC, MIPS & Compaq
| DateL Tue Oct 02, 22:57:14 1990
|
| [...]
|
| The purpose of announcing early like this is to freeze the market at the
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| OEM and ISV level. In this respect it is JUST like the original Windows
| announcement ..
|
| One might worry that this will help Sun because we will just have
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| vaporware, that people will stop buying 486 machines, that we will have
| ^^^^^^^^^
| endorsed RISC but not delivered .. So, Scott, do you really think you
| can fight that avalanche?
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http://edge-op.org/iowa/www.iowaconsumercase.org/010807/PLEX_0411_A.pdf
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