August 20th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
The following is not scientific, but it is a way to roughly gauge the current relative usage of file formats in the ongoing global contest. Based on the number of ODF versus MSOOXML files available on the web, ODF is steamrolling the competition, writes Ben Langhinrichs.
“In eight months since Office 2007 was released to the general public (10 months since release to enterprise customers), there are under 2,000 of these office documents posted on the web. In three months, 13,400 more ODF documents have been added to the web, with only 1,329 OOXML documents added. It is hard to spin ten times as many ODF documents added as OOXML documents, especially as 451 (34%) of those new documents were added on Microsoft.com. That isn’t what I would call good traction for the overwhelmingly dominant office suite.”
“And all of this before IBM rolls out Notes 8 with the ODF productivity editors included as part of the package.” (That rollout started last week, so give it time to reach critical mass, and we’ll see what additional impact it has had.)
Half the fight is in perception, so information like this can help to sway fence-sitters and skeptics toward adopting ODF, who might otherwise have given up due to their fear of institutionalized momentum for the previous market leader.
Posted in Free Culture, ODF | Comments Off on ODF vs MSOOXML on the Web
August 17th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
IBM will introduce new “productivity tools” in Lotus Notes 8. Basically, they’ve embedded OpenOffice.org into Lotus, allowing users to create ODF documents from within Notes 8.
Looks like a very interesting direction to be traveling. Wouldn’t a big organization jump at the chance to eliminate some of its MS Office licenses once document creation is integrated into other existing systems? License cost and administration complexity could be reduced by combining these two major application sets into one!
I also like some of the UI changes, where they’ve moved certain toolbars into tool palettes shown to the right of the main working area. (I don’t like the pale blue in the screenshots; too default XP-ish, but maybe that’s just Windows.)
Posted in ODF | Comments Off on IBM “Productivity Tools” in Lotus Notes
August 16th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Great news comes from Malaysia this week: the government appears to be adopting ODF as its standard document format.
ZDNet Asia announces, “Malaysia formally embraces Open Document Format.”
“The decision taken has been deliberated carefully for a considerable amount of time, and much thought process has been put into it,” Nor Aliah Mohd. Zahri, ICT deputy director general at MAMPU, said in a statement.
“These discussions centered on open formats, particularly as they relate to office documents, their importance for the current and future accessibility of government records, and the relative ‘openness’ of the format options available to us,” Nor Aliah explained.”
Posted in Free Culture, ODF | Comments Off on Malaysia Chooses ODF
August 14th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Two industry heavyweights have noticed MSOOXML is now struggling in its cakewalk to ISO approval.
Ryan Paul, for Ars Technica, reports that MS OOXML might not succeed in the fast-track process in Microsoft one vote short of fast-track OOXML ISO standardization:
“Executive board members of the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), the organization that represents the United States in ISO standardization deliberations, recently held an internal poll to determine the position that the United States should take on Microsoft’s request for Office Open XML (OOXML) approval. With eight votes in favor, seven against, and one abstention, the group was one vote short of the nine votes required for approving OOXML ISO standardization.”
In his personal blog, Mark Shuttleworth wonders if there is an Emerging consensus in favour of a unified document format standard?
“It’s too early to say for certain, but there are very encouraging signs that the world’s standards bodies will vote in favour of a single unified ISO (“International Standards Organisation”) document format standard… In the latest developments, standards committees in South Africa and the United States have both said they will vote against a second standard and thereby issue a strong call for unity and a sensible, open, common standard for business documents in word processing, spreadsheets and presentations.”
Shuttleworth identifies three highly compelling arguments that the world implement one, single standard:
- This is not a vote “for or against Microsoft”
- Open, consensus based document standards really WORK WELL – consider HTML
- A SINGLE standard with many implementations is MUCH more valuable than multiple standards
ODF is an important standard that could one day be as significant as HTML. Current efforts to derail it are coming from one source that sees it as a threat to its monopoly–but whatever your feelings toward that company, everyone is better served in the long term by building the best infrastructure today. And that digital infrastructure is ODF, not MSOOXML.
Posted in Free Culture, ODF | Comments Off on Shuttleworth and Ars Question MSOOXML’s Chances
July 30th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
The Open Malaysia Blog mirrors July’s ODF Alliance newsletter, which covers most of the current major ODF-related action around the world.
This month focuses on ODF vs. MSOOXML, the struggling attempt by Microsoft to have its MSOOXML ratified as a standard by the ISO, new members of the ODF Alliance, upcoming conferences, and a selection of highlighted news links regarding ODF.
Posted in ODF | Comments Off on ODF Alliance Newsletter 20 July 2007
July 24th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Mathias Bauer writes a summary of Highlights of OpenOffice.org 2.3 Writer for the GullFOSS blog.
Lots of good changes are coming this September. Among them are UI improvements, support for the updated ODF 1.1 standard, and a filter to save files in MediaWiki markup, to easily upload and add to a MediaWiki based site like Wikipedia or Wikipages. Many small fixes too, so be sure to check it out!
Posted in ODF, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Improvements Coming in OpenOffice.org 2.3 Writer
July 20th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
PR Newswire runs a release announcing Everex Launches $298 Back-to-School PC with OpenOffice.org Productivity Software.
Everex is the 7th largest retail PC brand in the US and has broken ground in two areas with this product: it’s probably the least-expensive mass market new PC I’ve ever seen, and it proudly bundles OpenOffice.org, with significant fanfare and marketing support for it. (It is also being sold at Walmart, but I don’t think that is particularly unusual–though there are no Walmarts in New York City, so I’m not too familiar with them.)
The release states “For the first time, Everex has also included OpenOffice.org 2.2, the critically acclaimed open-source office suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. “For years now, industry restrictions and tightening profit margins have forced PC manufacturers to shy away from offering productivity software on their new PCs,” states Eugene Chang, Product Manager for Everex. “In creating the eco-friendly GC3502, our main focus was to build a no-compromise, back-to-school PC with all the software applications a typical student would require, without resorting to bundling frivolous trial versions or increasing prices 30%.”
Bask in the presence of this new machine, model name GC3502!
And yes, you should expect and prepare to receive ODF files more and more frequently in the coming months. Download OpenOffice now so you aren’t rushing to get it installed later!
Posted in ODF, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | 2 Comments »
July 16th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
On Friday I linked to an article about Italy’s Parliament making a large migration to open source Linux desktops.
Today I’ve found Erwin Tenhumberg’s helpful post linking to articles in French, German and Italian newspapers covering the story. He also adds that Italy expects to save 3 million euros with the move, and speculates on the impact this will have for ODF: “Considering that Linux typically comes with ODF implementations like OpenOffice.org and KOffice, it’s quite likely that this move also includes the adoption of OpenOffice.org and/or ODF.”
Posted in GNU/Linux, ODF, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on More News on Italy’s Parliamentary Migration to Linux
July 11th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
The government of Poland appears ready to require ODF as its default data file format. Its definition of an open standard is derived from an EU framework:
- “The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit organization, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties (consensus or majority decision etc.).
- The standard has been published and the standard specification document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a nominal fee.
- The intellectual property – i.e. patents possibly present – of (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.
- There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.”
This is good news from what is, to me, a new FOSS website: Polish Linux.org.
Posted in ODF | Comments Off on Poland May Choose ODF
July 10th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Sun recently released a plugin that lets Microsoft Office users read and write the industry-standard ODF file format, which I covered last week.
The suggested Sun download link requires you to register before you can get the plugin, which is annoying. Fortunately, Heise provides their own download mirror of the ODF Plugin (click “Zur Download-Seite” when you get there), as well as a brief, and partially inaccurate, article describing it.
(Here’s Heise’s incomprehensible sentence which seems to confuse “ODF” with “OpenOffice,” a common, but obvious, error: “The extension allows users of MS Office to read and create text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in the free OpenOffice suite and its commercial version called StarOffice.”)
Here is how I would rewrite that sentence: “The extension allows users of MS Office to read and create text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in the industry-standard OpenDocument Format, widely known through its use by the free OpenOffice suite and its commercial version called StarOffice.”
Posted in ODF | Comments Off on Heise on Sun’s ODF Plugin