The first fruit of the recently announced Novell/Microsoft interoperability agreement arrived on Dec. 4, with Novell's announcement that its version of the OpenOffice productivity suite will now support the Microsoft Office Open XML format. The release candidate of Novell's modified version of OpenOffice.org 2.02 is now available for Windows for free download by registered Novell users.
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Member since:2005-12-02
"Of course, those who believe that OpenXML is a truly free format suitable for use without having to pay Microsoft tax are seriously misguided, but that's another issue entirely."
Well, since it is, and that is verified since the full implementation spec is available, free of charge, to anyone who wants it. It is as open as PDF is. So why would anyone pay Microsoft to implement this?
Member since:2006-02-01
Member since:2005-07-06
Of course, those who believe that OpenXML is a truly free format suitable for use without having to pay Microsoft tax are seriously misguided, but that's another issue entirely.
Can you site some evidence rather than making unsubstantiated claims? The format specification is a free download. You aren't required to implement the entire spec. Microsoft has promised not to assert applicable patents for implementations of the spec.
Member since:2005-07-02
Microsoft has promised not to assert applicable patents for implementations of the spec.
What kind of promise is it? Is it binding? Can they change their mind?
I mean, I'm all for giving MS the benefit of the doubt, but at the same time their past history makes it hard to trust them.
Member since:2005-07-06
Easy: look at web browsers and tell me that Microsoft care about specification.
And makes no mistake what truly matter is users interoperability, not specification compliance: if OOo is 100% compliant but MSOffice is not, users will complain that OOo is not compatible with MSOffice..
Also Microsoft could play again the upgrade treadmill changing (extending) the format specification, ensuring that OOo still be incompatible.
Microsoft has a really poor history of interoperability: embrace and extinguish.
Edited 2006-12-05 06:24
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Member since:
2005-07-06
Perhaps, but that doesn't matter in the issue, one strong point of OOo over say KOffice is that it is able to convert .doc better.
Being able to read OpenXML file is a good thing too.
These capacity are *necessary* to be able to switch: currently the default is .doc soon, it will be OpenXML so to switch to OOo you need to be able to read all those existing documents.
Of course, those who believe that OpenXML is a truly free format suitable for use without having to pay Microsoft tax are seriously misguided, but that's another issue entirely.