p2pnet - rss feed: OASIS panic at Microsoft?
p2p news / p2pnet:- “New file format causes Mass panic at Microsoft.”
This intriguing headline comes in PC Pro with news that the state of Mass(achusetts) has, “caused a stir after it has emerged that it plans to adopt the OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) open file format as a prerequisite for new productivity suites from 2007″.
And, “The decision to adopt OASIS formats, pioneered by the open source OpenOffice project, has naturally angered Microsoft whose Office suite dominates the commercial market.”
Massachusetts has released its Enterprise Technical Reference Model for comments saying its agencies must start planning for a transition due to start on January 1, 2007, says WebProNews. “It would be a big shift, and a big financial change,” it says, pointing out earlier, “The company behind the ubiquitous Office productivity suite has no intention of supporting the Open Document format.”
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See:-
PC Pro - New file format causes Mass panic at Microsoft, September 5, 2005
WebProNews - Microsoft Unimpressed With Massachusetts Policy, September 5, 2005
September 5th, 2005 at 5:27 pm
It’s a minor point, but the distinction must be made. Massachusetts is not a state, it, like Virginia, is a Commonwealth.
September 6th, 2005 at 1:37 am
Fair enough too. MS has this habit of changing file formats and refusing to support more than a couple of versions prior to current. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if office 12 due next year wasn’t capable of opening office 97 documents. Just another of MS’s little ways of “encouraging” ppl to upgrade. Thats only 9 years apart, what happens if you find a old doc in 20 years time and try to open it in whatevers current then?
What about businesses? Oz tax law requires companies to keep records for 7 years, and it’s probable the legal eagles would say “forever, unless it makes us look bad”. Does MS really expect businesses to go through and update every single document in the hope that they’ll be usable in the next version of office they “upgrade” to? Remember companies typically don’t update software every single time a new versions is released.
Usually a generation is skipped, and it’s possible that MS could literally cut you out of your own documents if you skipped too many versions at once. Again, just more “incentive” to stay current. MS has lost the plot. Where i work we’ve still got office 2000, and there are NO plans to upgrade. Hell, we’re using win2k on the desktop as well, i can guarantee that’s not going to change until we cannot get pc’s that will run it anymore.
They both do what we need it them do, why should we “upgrade” just so billy can get a few more cents per share next year? Get the hint MS, noone is prepared to waste money just so YOU can make a profit. We’re all trying to cut costs remember, and your products are a COST! Linux and open office are starting to look very attractive from a costs/benefits analysis perspective all of a sudden.
September 6th, 2005 at 2:24 am
For North Americans it is important to realize that even NAFTA chapter 10 (1007 to be precise) dictates that specific product names or specifications cannot be used as a substitute for a performance requirement in government acquisition. We fought a case against the Canadian Library of Parliament on this issue, and won.
http://www.flora.ca/documents/citt.shtml
In the case of office productivity there was not a standard in the past, but given there is one now it is consistent with existing government acquisition and trade rules to prefer (or even mandate) recognized standards where they exist. The only leg that Microsoft has to stand on is corrupt governments, and does any government really want to admit publicly by falling for Microsoft’s lobbying that they are corrupt?
OpenDocument standard is at: http://www.oasis-open.org/specs/index.php#opendocumentv1.0
September 6th, 2005 at 5:35 pm
Perhaps the Ostrich is pulling its head out of the sand?
Look, today and tomorrow ….the bottom line is profitabilty. LINUX is the desktop of the very near future. It works, its flexible , its secure and it is free for the most part.
Microsoft will not prevail unless they compete by lowering their prices tremendously.and decrease their user lack of security.
Open office and the like are great products. MS has come a long way but its bulky and buggy and lacks security. They have promised to fix the security problems for years and its no better.
Installing Linux is getting much easier. Similar to the earlier days of computers, more and more people are learning to install and use it and the tech suport is growing.
There are even Web sites such as GenUX that are about to give 24 hour tech support for Gentoo Linux for corporate and individual users alike.
Novel has bought SUSE Linux and IBM and others are all in the ballpark today
Microsoft is no longer saying “nothing will become of Linux,” they are worried.
Mass is only one of the states that has jumped aboard and will save taxpayers money.
Linux is a win win situation
September 7th, 2005 at 1:44 am
Installing linux is a breeze. I for one have gotten tired of the continual malware one has to deal with and all the protections required to run Microsucks products. Not only is the OS not worth the money but when you look at what you get for the next update and what is needed each year in renewal fees to try and fight this malware, it is an expensive proposition to continue to run Microsucks products.
I switched to linux without knowing anything about it. Linux is far enough advanced now that it found my harddrives, readers, writers, camera, soundcard, video card, controller cards, memory, cpu, and all extras. About the only thing I had to do was verify I wanted an english setup, my time zone, and password. That’s not very much complication for average Joe to figure out.
What is nice, is free dictionary, free weather report of my area, free office software, no need of worrying about viruii, malware, trojans, and the enjoyment of surfing the net has returned.
I won’t go back to windoze. I spend years and years learning windoze only to discover that a leaky bucket of security issues isn’t going to get better. If you learn all the ins and outs of windoze you will still be dealing with security issues.
Like the poster above, Linux has been my answer…
September 7th, 2005 at 8:40 am
They aren’t using Linux, they will continue to use Windoze. They are using the Win32 build of OpenOffice 2.0