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first, this entire thread is totally OT in a discussion about online desktops. Having said that, I can't help myself but reply anyways
flash as it currently exists can't be used as a shield to hold off competition in two major markets (office productivity apps and operating systems) which is what MS' document formats have long been used for. If it were in a position to do so then by all means, such attempts should be resisted by anyone with an interest in the expansion of software freedom.
Luckily the current climate is forcing a rubberstamp of "standards compliance". That is the ONLY reason MS is pushing OOXML to ISO. Some people take the pragmatic approach of using the situation to force OOXML into something useful as a standard, ie implemented by 3rd parties. The alternative is reverse engineering a proprietary blob.
This is too good of a chance to let slip by.




Member since:
2006-08-29
FOSS office packages don't have the market or mind share to prevent OOXML becoming dominant. The fact Microsoft are even pushing it through a standardization process is a miracle and if they don't it will *still* have taken over the market. This is a fact.
I'm glad to see there are some level headed people in the Free Software community clever enough to realise this and try and make the most of a shadowed situation by making sure the standardized document is as clear as it can possibly be.
What next? Give up swfdec and Gnash and tell Adobe to go f--k themselves until Flash is open sourced?