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Welcome to virtuallinux.org. You are currently reading the article "Debate over document formats not just academic". All articles on virtuallinux.org pertain to the ongoing assult on the worlds greatest Operating system. Continue on reading about "Debate over document formats not just academic"
Debate over document formats not just academic
Posted on Wednesday, December 20 2006 @ 09:44:52 EST by linuxwiz |
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Use of
vendor-made ‘standards' has led to situations in which users can't
access their own files because they don't have the tools anymore.
It's certainly an understatement to suggest that
open source dominated most of the IT headlines in the last month or
two. Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, Adobe, Sun and Red Hat have all had
something substantial to say recently regarding their visions of open
source's future. To be sure, most of the announcements represent some
kind of assertion of power, an attempt to be a player influencing the
direction of open source growth. Most want to ensure that the growth of
openness is guided or narrowed in one way or the other. Each wants to
make sure that their particular imprint on the way Linux and friends
are developed and distributed takes hold.
Most people I know, and most analysts I have read,
have indicated fairly extreme conclusions. To some, Microsoft's deal
with Novell and Sun's moves to finally open source Java are seen as
milestones without which open source could never become sufficiently
mainstream. To others, the deal indicates a deadly mutation that
threatens open source with patents the way SCO tried to threaten it
with copyrights. I've seen calls to embrace Novell for its actions and
others calling for total boycotts.
I personally subscribe to
neither extreme, and view most of the moves with extremely cautious
optimism. I see the deals as neither paradigm-shifting breakthroughs
nor the end of the open source world as we know it. Microsoft does have
a history of chewing up and spitting out its “partners,” but that's
Novell's problem and not that of the greater open source world. I do
believe the software patent issues are serious but the community is
extremely resilient.
Personally, the event that caught my attention - flying under the radar
of all the heavyweight news - was a quiet blog entry on
consortiuminfo.org regarding the development and endorsement of the
Uniform Office Format (UOF). According to the entry, the UOF is to
become the default and only office document format supported by the
Chinese government. The UOF was developed through an open process that
was designed to build on existing open standards, driven by the needs
of document creators and users rather than software vendors and
developers. What a concept. Adoption of the UOF standard throughout
China makes the government of Massachusetts' adoption of the
OpenDocument format pale by comparison.
Just before you jump to complain about one more standard, it should be
noted that there is active work to harmonize OpenDocument and UOF,
endorsed and supported by both sides. Conspicuously left out of the
equation is the proposed Microsoft alternative to OpenDocument, called
OpenXML. The assertion of UOF, and its avoidance of the kind of
political manipulation that characterized the document standards debate
in Massachusetts, indicates to me the coming of a major change in the
way international IT standards and policies will be developed. In my
own international exposure through standards bodies and other forums,
American bullying on issues of technology standards and policy has been
commonplace. The Chinese assertion of UOF, despite the standards noises
made by the other American-led initiatives, indicates a new-found
maturity and confidence that is sure to be watched by other countries.
The debate over document formats, and who has the power over them, has
far more than merely academic relevance. Even IT users who don't care
much for open source can realize the value of having a truly open
format that is controlled by users rather than vendors. Only in IT do
the makers of the tools have so much power over the finished product.
Use of old vendor-made “standards” has led to situations in which users
can't access their own files because they don't have the old tools
anymore.
Source
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