What is Digg?Sponsored by Travelzoo
Take Advantage of Ridiculously Low Holiday Airfares view!
travelzoo.com - Flights $52 and up for Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Year. But move on it now.
31 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2So are people happy then?, i can't tell from people's comments if they are happy or not, presumably you are happy.
- veridicus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Standardized != Open
- ricodued, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It _IS_ open, guys. Microsoft has said before (a month ago if not longer) that anyone that wants to can use their open XML-based formats in their applications free of charge and royalty.
They're even creating a Linux reader, officially supported. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2E-week.com has a different take on this...it's well worth reading.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1892080,00.asp
"How many times does Microsoft have to lie about being open before people get it?" - supercleanse, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1WWWOOOORRRRDDDD!!!! Microsoft ROCKS! They are going to blow OpenOffice out of the water with their quasi-open formats.
- aburd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Doesn't this make OpenOffice's job easier as well? Since they don't have to introduce people to the idea of multiple formats for docs, etc it will be easier for people to understand and trust the software.
Sure Office is going to continue making lots of money, but that isn't the only significant effect this action will produce. - Philip_McClure, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Has their history in such matters given you great faith in that?"
BING!BING!BING! Give that man a bozo button! spyres nails the problem on the first try. Microsoft has a history of "embrace and extend" (e.g. java, kerberos, and IPP to name but a few).
They also tend to play a few dirty tricks to thwart the competition, such as "Microsoft issued a prerelease development kit for its OLE technology to its competitors. When they actually released OLE, they purposefully modified it so that it would crash the competitors' software that had used the development kit." "Windows 3.1 gave bogus warning messages if it ran on top of DR-DOS instead of MS-DOS", and "When Microsoft decided to enter the web browser market, they didn't start by writing Internet Explorer from scratch; they licensed web browser software from Spyglass. The license agreement gave Spyglass 5% of gross revenue on sales of the product, which doesn't sound too bad. However, given that they get most of their revenue from Windows and Office sales, Microsoft stopped selling Internet Explorer after version 1.0 (with the Windows 95 Plus Pack), and started giving it away for free." This last one directly contributed to the demise of Netscape, that they just happened to screw Spyglass in the process was icing on the cake.
Microsoft has made it a habit of creating stumbling blocks and thwarting interoperability whenever possible. Many of us who have gone through getting burned by Redmond's tactics tend to be skeptical of Microsoft's "goodwill".
Don't misunderstand me, however Microsoft wants to run it's business is fine with me. I just don't want the Federal govenment to lock public documents into *any* proprietary format. - TheNik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@tsu - Haha, with a 4 year delay, amirite? :D?
- 5blocksfree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1thenik wrote: They bitch and whine about everything that even comes remotely close to being against Linux.
I will be happy when I see that an OpenOffice developer can use these specifications, unencumbered, to create an import/exporter that will work nearly flawlessly with current Microsoft document formats. I will also be happy when I see that there is no lag time between the release of new formats by Microsoft, so that OpenOffice developers can make the necessary changes to accommodate them. - spyres, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If it's still patent encumbered (and I think it is), it's not really "open" at all.
Just because it's submitted to a standards orgnanization doesn't mean MS can't control/limit how their competition uses it.
No digg. - jmacdonagh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Chango Family: they're working on getting it submitted and accepted as an ISO standard as well.
- blowdart, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0So you didn't read the article, don't understand what an ISO standard means and yet you still feel you can piss and moan? Nice burstlag. It's getting more and more like slashdot in here.
- rfoos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What is the ISO policy on patent licensing? Is it similar to ECMA?
- Tsuroerusu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Even if Microsoft gets their format accepted, it won't be completely open, an ISO standard is to my knowledge just a like a spec. sheet and not something everyone can use as they see fit.
And we already have a good open format for documents, OpenDocument, which is supported by IBM, Sun, Novell, Red Hat and I guarantee you, Microsoft's Office engineers could incorporate support for OpenDocument into Office in two weeks at the most if not just one week. - vdxc, on 09/29/2008, -0/+0Microsoft is quite clearly trying to ditch it's evilness - this might be Steve "throw a chair" ballmer's attempt at his promised comment of "I'm going to kill google" by competing in the friendly multi-national companies look which has helped google prosper so much; either that or he has just lost the other 50% of his brain.
- blowdart, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Standardized != Open : So define open. Documented, standardised and free for all to use with no licensing?
There's more to open than the GPL you know. - DoctorWhohaa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Just a ploy to take the wind out of OpenXML's sails. I thought that they would have done this sooner. If they can keep everybody using the OfficeXML format, they stand to make a killing on their backoffice apps.
- burstlag, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Microsoft's XML formats are not open. They are encumbered with patents and you still have to sign and agree to an NDA just to get a look at the schema. Free, yes. But free is not open. These document formats are open only in name.
- MikeCampo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Well at least they're trying
- verde, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Its open, but Microsoft will extends it (the xml format) with new features that only work with other microsoft products. They are being force to "embrace" document standardization--but you better bet they will "extend" before alternatives get a footing.
- GenghisKhan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yes they do. Yet it is not completely sure what they are 'trying' to do. But again it does look like they are just trying to calm down the few customers upset enough to make a fuzz. As stated before: I hope I am wrong. Really!
- GenghisKhan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@Thenik.
May be. I personally do not really care though. They can keep their standards closed if they want but do not call something closed 'open' because it is not. At least not in this case. - Chango_Family, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Is it something in the water which makes its impossible for a Redmond employee understand the difference between an open standard and an ISO standard?
- spyres, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0---use these specifications, unencumbered, to create an import/exporter that will work nearly flawlessly with current Microsoft document formats.
---no lag time between the release of new formats by Microsoft, so that OpenOffice developers can make the necessary changes to accommodate them.
As we have not seen the final license yet for the MS XML formats, are you willing to blindly take the word of MS that the above will come to pass?
Has their history in such matters given you great faith in that?
Just wondering... - blowdart, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Wasn't their last ECMA submission the .Net specs? So Mono is a farce?
As for comments? Hmm, that will probably happen right about the same time Sun does - zone, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0too little, too late.
- GenghisKhan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0It is *NOT* open. And certainly not free. Oh, and if they upgrade Office they will update the specs within 18 months. And cry foul that MS office support is so much better than theirs. :rolleyes:
Ah, and the spec is for how to create a document in their format. How to read one is *not* covered.
Still. I hope I am wrong. Very wrong... - GenghisKhan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0@Mancat: Read the submission to ECMA. Not the Redmond Marketing stuff.
- TheNik, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3@mynightwish - nothing will make the countless script kitties and linux zealots on Digg happy. Microsoft can completely give up everything and shut down the company completely and they wouldn't be happy. They bitch and whine about everything that even comes remotely close to being against Linux.
- mancat, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1To all the "It's not open" people: Have you even read the article, or any of the other articles about OfficeXML in the past few months. THE FORMAT IS BEING COMPLETELY OPENED BY MICROSOFT.
- TheNik, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Take THAT Pennsylvania! (That's the right traitor state, right?)
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is