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Oracle's ODF Plug-in Pricing: What's up with That?
,----[ Quote ]
| Moreover, itâs not just $90 youâll need to
| fork over â the plug-in is only available
| in packages of 100.
|
| Before you ask: (a) yes, an Office 2007
| service pack released some time back by
| Microsoft allows users of that version of
| Office (and also of Office 2000, 2003 and
| XP) to work with documents using ODF 1.0,
| but not the most current version of ODF,
| which is version 1.2; and (2) no, unlike
| OpenOffice, the plug-in was never made
| available by Sun as open source software.
|
| For me, this raises three important
| questions:
|
| 1. What is Oracle trying to accomplish?
|
| 2. Is it likely to work?
|
| 3. Given that Oracle controls
| OpenOffice.org, developer of the most
| widely used desktop direct implementation
| of ODF, what does this indicate for the
| future of that software?
|
| [...]
|
| Conclusion: While the existence of
| OpenOffice was essential to ODF in the
| first few years after Peter Quinnâs
| quixotic decision to support the rebel
| standard, ODF is now past the point where
| itâs future is dependent on it. And in
| point of fact, Sun was always at best a
| flawed steward for the poster child
| implementation of ODF, keeping too close
| control over it to attract the kind of
| broad individual and enterprise support
| that flocked to contribute to Linux and
| Apache, for example.
|
| Overall, though, I think that Oracle has
| probably made a reasonable decision insofar
| as its own self interest is concerned. It
| does leave open one tantalizing question
| though, thatâs harder to read: does the
| decision to charge for the plug-in indicate
| that Oracle is taking its ODF-compliant
| office suite unit seriously as a money
| maker, and plans to put serious resources
| behind it, or that it is simply imposing a
| bean-counterâs discipline on the unit to
| make money?
|
| If itâs the former, than thatâs good news
| for the ODF community, because OpenOffice
| still has the most dedicated users, and the
| most credibility, of all the alternatives.
| And if the paid version gets traction,
| there will be more third party software
| developers, like those that create crucial
| software, such as document management
| tools, that will take the time to integrate
| with it. This is essential to creating a
| true proprietary as well as an open source
| competitor to Office.
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http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20100421065030157
Oracle Wants to Charge $9,000 for "Free" Download
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/tech/Oracle-Wants-to-Charge-9000-for-Free-Download-jw-91646954.html
It Starts: ORCL Charges $90 For ODF Plugin
,----[ Quote ]
| It seems entirely likely that this will
| allow ORCL to say âWe gave it a fair shot,
| but thereâs just no demand for it.â With
| that, Oracle could abandon the ODF-
| translation field, leaving it to the
| Microsoft-sponsored Clever Age plugins
| project and the not-so-interoperable built-
| in functionality in recent updates to MS
| Office.
|
| As an aside, is it likely that something
| like this is coming to MySQL soon?
|
| What does this say for the OpenOffice.org
| project? Obviously, no one knows yet. At
| least, no one outside of Oracle knows.
`----
http://lnxwalt.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/it-starts-orcl-charges-90-for-odf-plugin/
Why I like Oracleâs $90 ODF Plugin
,----[ Quote ]
| At the risk of pouring oil on the fire, let
| me say that I think this is an exciting
| development for ODF. We have three
| solutions for providing ODF support in MS
| Office:
|
| 1. Oracleâs Plugin
| 2. CleverAge Add-in
| 3. Microsoftâs native ODF support
|
| These three solutions have always varied in
| terms of quality of conversion, versions of
| MS Office supported, versions of ODF
| supported, level of integration into MS
| Office, etc. And now they vary based on
| price. This is a good thing. It is called
| âcompetitionâ. I like it.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2010/04/oracle-odf-plugin.html
Microsoft agrees to fix error in Polish browser ballot screen
,----[ Quote ]
| But there's a glitch in its Polish language
| page, wrote Rob Weir, an ODF (Open Document
| Format) architect with IBM, who wrote on
| his personal blog that he was tipped off to
| a problem.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft acknowledged the error.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9175837/Microsoft_agrees_to_fix_error_in_Polish_browser_ballot_screen
Recent:
8 Advanced OpenOffice.org Add-ons
,----[ Quote ]
| OpenOffice.org (OOo for short) is a great
| office suite for Linux and pretty much any
| other operating system, but can always use
| improvement. This is especially true for
| templates and clip art. Fortunately, the open
| source community provides many add-ons or
| extensions. Here's a look at eight different
| ones:
|
| English Templates by OxygenOffice
|
| One of the biggest features you might miss
| from Microsoft Office is their templates. This
| might especially be the case now that they
| have integrated the online user-submitted
| templates, giving you even more choices. In
| OOo, all you get is two presentation
| templates, an assortment of presentation
| templates, and a few wizards to help make
| letters, faxes, and agendas--the bare minimum.
| Then on a different menu (File > New), you'll
| find shortcuts to work with labels and
| business cards.
`----
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/7028/1/
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