arstechnica.com— The Open Document Format has been published as an official standard by the International Organization for Standardization last week. What will this mean for the future of office apps?
Dec 4, 2006View in Crawl 4
as quoted on their site :Because "International Organization for Standardization" would have different abbreviations in different languages ("IOS" in English, "OIN" in French for Organisation internationale de normalisation), it was decided at the outset to use a word derived from the Greek isos, meaning "equal". Therefore, whatever the country, whatever the language, the short form of the organization's name is always ISO.
"...Standards in the long run, help innovation."Do you really believe this is always true? Just as an example, assuming there was one "standard" GUI, one "standard" file system, one "standard" installation system, etc. for Linux; would Linux be more innovative?Too many people support standards only when they see that the primary impact is on the competition.
"And does it really matter?"Umm I don't want a company influenced by money to set any kind of standards. It should be obvious to you that they could be inclined to make it difficult for competitors to create products which support those standards if they chose to. I'm in favor of interoperability and choice in software. (by the way, I don't think the military makes the best/most informed decisions)
"And does it really matter?"It matters only to the extent that industry, consumers, etc. accept, endorse and follow any particular standard. As of the end of 2005, the ISO had 15649 standards in place. I haven't conducted a survey but my guess is that a significant number of these are technologically obsolete. Others have little or no real world impact and could easily be eliminated without anyone really caring.
From your posts, I get the impression you don't fully comprehend what having standards means. Think about the technology you are using for a second. From the wire layer, to ip, to tcp/ip, to the HTML you are using to post your comments to the css that makes the page look pretty. All standards. Thanks to this I'm posting this from a Linux machine and you can view it on your own platform. No vendor lock-in, freedom of implementing the standard. Think beyond the ms curtain.
"From your posts, I get the impression you don't fully comprehend what having standards means."I understand fully that standards have their place. But I also understand that they are no panacea. A standard is a trade-off that places conformity and interoperability ahead of innovation. Open Source has come out strongly in favor of standardized documents. But mention standards in reference to anything that doesn't mostly impact MS, such as a standardized GUI, file system or installation system for Linux and the viewpoint immediately flips. Think beyond the anti-MS curtain.
firebeeDec 5, 2006
Read and get some sense: <a class="user" href="http://www.iso.org/iso/en/faqs/faq-general.html">http://www.iso.org/iso/en/faqs/faq-general.html</a>
mooniniteDec 5, 2006
thinkdrastic, it already exists. Google "Evolution"*sigh* Ignorance must be bliss.
duxxyukDec 5, 2006
as quoted on their site :Because "International Organization for Standardization" would have different abbreviations in different languages ("IOS" in English, "OIN" in French for Organisation internationale de normalisation), it was decided at the outset to use a word derived from the Greek isos, meaning "equal". Therefore, whatever the country, whatever the language, the short form of the organization's name is always ISO.
duxxyukDec 5, 2006
Well I hope in that case the European commission will catch them out for not using ISO standards per default.
jqp123Dec 5, 2006
"...Standards in the long run, help innovation."Do you really believe this is always true? Just as an example, assuming there was one "standard" GUI, one "standard" file system, one "standard" installation system, etc. for Linux; would Linux be more innovative?Too many people support standards only when they see that the primary impact is on the competition.
mariogdltDec 5, 2006
It's 215 days more and less old
cynicistDec 5, 2006
"And does it really matter?"Umm I don't want a company influenced by money to set any kind of standards. It should be obvious to you that they could be inclined to make it difficult for competitors to create products which support those standards if they chose to. I'm in favor of interoperability and choice in software. (by the way, I don't think the military makes the best/most informed decisions)
jqp123Dec 5, 2006
"And does it really matter?"It matters only to the extent that industry, consumers, etc. accept, endorse and follow any particular standard. As of the end of 2005, the ISO had 15649 standards in place. I haven't conducted a survey but my guess is that a significant number of these are technologically obsolete. Others have little or no real world impact and could easily be eliminated without anyone really caring.
loconetDec 6, 2006
From your posts, I get the impression you don't fully comprehend what having standards means. Think about the technology you are using for a second. From the wire layer, to ip, to tcp/ip, to the HTML you are using to post your comments to the css that makes the page look pretty. All standards. Thanks to this I'm posting this from a Linux machine and you can view it on your own platform. No vendor lock-in, freedom of implementing the standard. Think beyond the ms curtain.
jqp123Dec 6, 2006
"From your posts, I get the impression you don't fully comprehend what having standards means."I understand fully that standards have their place. But I also understand that they are no panacea. A standard is a trade-off that places conformity and interoperability ahead of innovation. Open Source has come out strongly in favor of standardized documents. But mention standards in reference to anything that doesn't mostly impact MS, such as a standardized GUI, file system or installation system for Linux and the viewpoint immediately flips. Think beyond the anti-MS curtain.