I have to give kudos to Mark Shuttleworth for his post regarding the situation. He has provided additional insight and some information on what to do to help defeat Microsoft’s attempt to push itself into the arena instead of accepting the ODF standard. His final point is that this is like HTML, one standard with many implementations¹. One can use Firefox, IE, Safari, or Opera to surf the web. Why can’t we have a document format like this?

We have a good solid standard. We need to support the ODF standard and get others on board. Speaking of which, Malaysia just announced their support and backing of the ODF standard². You would think after the ZD Australia article and the commenting and criticizing of Microsoft across the web, including here, that they would see some of this and get a clue as to what the people want. But as we know, they are more concerned with their bank account.

I believe that the better standard has ‘won’ and that OpenXML will follow in the footsteps of things like Passport and Bob.

iron wil

Notes:

(1) Mark Shuttleworth’s Blog, Emerging consensus in favour of a unified document format standard?

(2) ZD Net Asia, Malaysia formally embraces Open Document Format.

I have to be honest, I like Office, but as you know, I don’t like the price (cough – arm and leg). I covered this in enough detail in a previous article. In the story on ZDNet Australia, the writer conveys the thoughts of both Microsoft and OpenOffice.

Microsoft has been pushing OXML through the system to get it approved as an Open XML format for savings different document types [like .doc, .xls, .ppt etc.] the struggle comes in that ODF has already gained approval [and acceptance]. A nice feature of ODF is that the suite of software does not take precedence over the document itself; meaning that I can use several different text or spreadsheet programs to edit my file, like StarOffice, Google’s Writely, and Lotus Notes¹.

The point here is that many companies are getting on board and Microsoft’s complaint is that they will have to make changes because ODF is getting the support that they are after. Several governing bodies, including Massachusetts, California, the Department of Defense, Belgium, and Denmark, have officially made ODF the standard for their documents¹. This means that they will have to be able to read and save in these formats. They are not dictating what software package will be used to do that job! This is an important note, because Microsoft could drop OXML and implement ODF and probably stay in their cushy desktop domination position. Instead, they want the rest of the world to adopt their implementation.

I feel that it is imperative that access to your documents and spreadsheets are more important than what Office Suite you are using to edit them. I mean that is the whole point, isn’t it? Look at websites, we have HTML, it is the standard that allows all browsers to ‘read’ the internet pages and display the content². Granted ODF is not perfect and it has its short comings, however, it has a strong support base and they are working to improve ODF³.

Before to long it will be a strong and well defined standard & many will flock to ODF because it will provide a way for everyone to send, read, edit, and return documents.

iron wil

Notes: some content has been used from the following articles

1) What Is OpenDocument, by Sam Hiser.

2) When Standards Are Political — ODF (the Open Document Format), by James Love.

3) Open Document, Wikipedia.