LINUX DISTRIBUTOR Linspire has shown what it is costing it to sign a deal with Microsoft over patents.
This morning a press release winged its way from Linspire which said the outfit was "joining the current efforts to improve the ability of OpenOffice.org users to work with the Office Open XML format by increasing the interoperability between ODF and Open XML".
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I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this, but there’s been a curious conflation of the ideas of the open standard OpenDocument format (ODF) and the concept of open source. Now there has long been confusion between open standards and open source, and that’s why I wrote the four part series last year that teased apart the two.
Read more »What does Xandros get out of its recent deal with Microsoft? Well, for one thing, the well-known Linux desktop distributor will get Open XML/ODF translators for OpenOffice.
--- Sounds like FUD to me. What was stopping Xandros from using the converter before, since it's free software? [Merc]
Massachusetts' open formats policy is off to a slow start with only 250 of the government's 50,000 PCs outfitted with the necessary technology. Since the policy was publicly introduced last year, the plan has seen resistance from state employees and Microsoft, lobbying heavily against the format change.
Read more »" A comparison of the two XML-based formats–OpenDocument Format ("ODF") and Office Open XML ("OOXML")–across widely accepted "openness" criteria has revealed substantial differences, including the following:"
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In [a] letter released Friday, Microsoft execs Tom Robertson and Jean Paoli stress that customers worldwide deserve choice and flexibility in standard file formats. They also paint Microsoft as taking pains to avoid confrontation over standards.
Read more »What are we to make of this? Several things, I think, and none of them reflect very well on the legislators involved.
Read more »An open, XML-based standard for displaying and storing data files (text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations) offers a new and promising approach to data storage and document exchange among office applications.
Read more »"You might think the steady defeat of bills in several U.S. states to mandate the use of free interoperable file formats might dampen the spirits of IBM Corp., one of the prime supporters of the OpenDocument Format (ODF)."
Read more »New York has become the latest U.S. state to ponder whether to use open standards for government document formats, though the move is not necessarily good news for proponents of the ISO standard ODF (Open Document Format).
Read more »In a resounding victory for Microsoft Corp., bills seeking to mandate the use of open document formats by government agencies have been defeated in five states, and only a much-watered-down version of such legislation was signed into law in a sixth state.
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