Another gem on the beauty of open standards from The Google Blog:
I use Word all the time. It's the industry standard for my day job, and it's useful for composing long blog posts. For mail, I have a BlackBerry smartphone. I use Entourage/Exchange at CapitolValley to stay in contact with my compatriot on the left coast, and Outlook/Exchange at my day job to keep calendered and in touch with an organization over 200 people. Sometimes Microsoft, (like those Utah GOPers who want to let parents choose filtered ISPs) gets things right. On the other hand, when it comes to international open standards they should simply admit defeat and adapt their admittedly useful software to use ODF. They have everything to gain by getting more people to use Office. Really.
Embrace the standard, and you'll gain generations of new customers. Maybe not on your operating system, but does it matter?
Give me better software and I'll buy it.
Call your Congresspersons. Make your voice heard. Open standards last. Crappy ones don't.
I used to really hate MS. I used Linux, and WordPerfect for Linux. I have not touched Windows outside of my public school education (that is to say on my personal machine) from the age of 14, when I switched to Linux, to 2001 when I purchased my first Macintosh, and with it, Microsoft Office X. I don't hate Microsoft anymore. What I hated was Windows.Google supports open document standards and the Open Document Format - ODF, the recognized international standard (ISO 26300). ODF is supported and implemented across the globe, and its communal creation and iteration has helped ensure the transparency, consistency and interoperability necessary in a workable standard.
Currently, the technology industry is evaluating a proposed ISO standard for document formats. Given the importance of a workable standard, Microsoft's submission of Office Open XML (OOXML ) as an additional international standard has caught the attention of many. In September 2007, the original request to ISO was defeated. After further technical analysis of the specification along with all the additional data available on OOXML, Google believes OOXML would be an insufficient and unnecessary standard, designed purely around the needs of Microsoft Office.
We join the ODF Alliance and many other experts in our belief that OOXML doesn't meet the criteria required for a globally-accepted standard. (An overview of our findings and sample technical issues unresolved are posted here.)
As ISO Member bodies around the world work on possible revisions of their vote previously submitted, the deadline of March 30th approaches fast. I invite you to pay close attention, and heed the call of many for unification of OOXML into ODF. A document standards decision may not matter to you today, but as someone who relies on constant access to editable documents, spreadsheets and presentations, it may matter immensely in the near future.
I use Word all the time. It's the industry standard for my day job, and it's useful for composing long blog posts. For mail, I have a BlackBerry smartphone. I use Entourage/Exchange at CapitolValley to stay in contact with my compatriot on the left coast, and Outlook/Exchange at my day job to keep calendered and in touch with an organization over 200 people. Sometimes Microsoft, (like those Utah GOPers who want to let parents choose filtered ISPs) gets things right. On the other hand, when it comes to international open standards they should simply admit defeat and adapt their admittedly useful software to use ODF. They have everything to gain by getting more people to use Office. Really.
Embrace the standard, and you'll gain generations of new customers. Maybe not on your operating system, but does it matter?
Give me better software and I'll buy it.
Call your Congresspersons. Make your voice heard. Open standards last. Crappy ones don't.
Leave a comment