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ODF — the inevitable format?

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zridling:
[via Bob Sutor]:

ODF icons


From Red Hat Magazine:
Conceived as an open alternative to the proprietary document handling software, which then dominated the world, the driving force behind the ODF was the need for a vendor-neutral document format independent of any single application, readable and writable for all, without any royalty of licensing "encumbrances." It was promoted on the basis that business and taxpayers would save money. An open format would create competition in the document application sphere. All documents could be read and shared by everyone. Nothing could be lost to time or changes in proprietary code or licensing requirements. Matters of great public interest — census data, weather data, public health statistics, investigative reports, court records and basic scientific research, all paid for by taxpayers, would no longer be encoded on a single, proprietary closed-standard format, requiring citizens to pay twice for access to their own information. Using ODF, proponents said, would keep public documents public. — T. Colin Dodd

f0dder:
I don't think ODF is the be-all-end-all format, but I sure hope it'll be accepted and OOXML will be dumped, on the simple grounds that the OOXML specs are too long and complex and flawed.

Both formats seem to be pretty much XML memory dumps of internal structures, rather than well planned and 'interchange friendly' documents, though. And XML formats, while nice for interchange, are retarded as main-use format.

Eóin:
I read this, Crushed by the Wheels of Industry, blog from Jeremy Allison recently. We all know Microsoft wants us to get locked into their products but here is an example of a very extreme approach they have taken.

zridling:
Sadly, and predictably, Microsoft has taken the political and marketing route for MS-OOXML on the road to ISO, having lost on the technical and logical grounds. This is supported by the fact that they now are playing procedural games and looking for loopholes in the ISO process. The recent attempt to try to get people to vote "YES with comments" is an example. That's similar to an american politician voting yes for war before returning later to vote against it. By the time you do that, you're already owned.

housetier:
Being a linux-only guy I cannot choose between ODF and OOXML. It doesn't hurt me one bit though: I haven't used a word processor in over a year. I write most of my documents in textile markup and convert is as needed. I don't know if I will be able to convert to .odf though...

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