March 29th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
A fifth state, and the fourth in just this year, joins the tidal shift: an open formats bill has been introduced in Oregon’s legislature.
Andy Updegrove writes:
“While the Oregon bill falls into a current trend, it is in some ways less similar to the bills introduced earlier this year than they are to each other. Most notably, it would establish a clear preference for open formats that are deployed in the greatest variety of programs and services that are available as “free ware,” which it defines as “computer software made available or distributed to the public for use free of charge for an unlimited time.” Through this and other provisions, it is clear that only ODF, and not OOXML, would pass muster for the foreseeable future in Oregon. The bill was introduced by State Representative Peter Buckley as House Bill 2920.
Looking first to the central definition of an “open format,” we see that the Oregon definition is more detailed than that which is found in most of the other bills. For example, while the California formulation is very high level and would provide more flexibility in interpretation, the Oregon text is more precise, and often provides examples of what would be required in order to comply with the bill.”
Oregon’s legislation is also mentioned in a Computerworld article.
Posted in Free Culture, ODF | Comments Off on Oregon Going for ODF
March 20th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
The Open Malaysia blog announces: Korea Ministry of Information and Communication adopting ODF.
That’s another one for the big list! And an important move for Korea, which has long been seen as a very enthusiastic user of everything Microsoft.
“The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) announced on the 7th that it is intending to adopt OpenDocument Format (ODF) as its software document standard for administrative work.
In that case, software that does not support ODF will be completely excluded from the public agencies.
Currently, software from Microsoft and Haansoft that dominate the Korean market does not support ODF. However, Haansoft said that they have planned to make its product support ODF.”
This illustrates how any software program can support ODF and be allowed to compete for government contracts that require it. Microsoft’s argument against supporting ODF in its products is, once again, shown to be a red herring.
Posted in ODF | Comments Off on Korean Ministry Adopting ODF
March 16th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Anyone familiar enough with using Microsoft Windows and Office knows that moving years of data and habits to a new platform is not easy.
That difficulty–created through decades of strategic decisions at Microsoft–is exactly why it is so important to migrate away. Microsoft’s strategy is to make it ever harder to work on any other platform, and to keep increasing their revenues by squeezing those who remain locked in to Microsoft’s products. They seem to be redoubling their efforts at monopoly control right now, in particular by tying their desktop monopoly products to new server products coming out, but right now is also a chance to escape.
An opportunity exists to switch to Open Source (whether it’s just Firefox and OpenOffice on existing Windows boxes for now, or whether it’s an OS migration to Linux) because of faltering sales of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007, providing a rare chance for individuals and organizations to make a shift and get off the expensive treadmill of Microsoft’s stream of costly updates.
Sam Hiser provides a high level guide to “leaving Windows and Office.”
At the very heart of this opportunity is ODF, the OpenDocument Format, which does for typical office documents what HTML did for the web: standardizes it and gives every person and every program equal access to the real value, the data stored within.
Adopting ODF is the key to escaping Microsoft’s dungeon, and breaking down that barrier then opens up an unprecedented range of flexibility in a competitive marketplace. Hiser discusses several ways to accomplish this in his post, and has collected thoughtful comments from notable industry veterans in response (and in affirmation of his points).
Posted in GNU/Linux, ODF, Open Source, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Sam Hiser on Migrating Away from Windows and MS Office
March 13th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Walt Hucks of Opportunity Knocks analyzes the classic battle now taking place between ODF and MSOOXML in MSFT: Let’s Do VHS Versus Betamax All Over.
As usual, I can’t help but quote from the very end of the article. That doesn’t mean you should avoid reading it, since it’s got a lot of good points that I won’t summarize here, and some links to a number of other interesting pieces covering the issues. (Including the broader-and-broader realization that MSOOXML is going to lose this battle…)
Hucks concludes with, “A word of advice to anyone who is considering the purchase of Microsoft Office 2007: Until this file format competition resolves itself, you are the one with something to lose. Your best bet is to hold off for at least 18 months, until we see whether the OOXML format is even still in use at that time. In the mean time, you can download OpenOffice.org (OOo) and use the .doc, .xls, and .ppt formats that you are used to using.”
Sound advice! Let the billionaires take the risks, and keep your money in your pocket until you know it can be spent wisely.
Posted in ODF, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Opportunity Knocks: It’s “VHS Versus Betamax All Over”
March 10th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Now that the avalanche is picking up speed, it’s interesting to observe the manner in which different countries’ governments migrate toward open source software. (At least, from the articles I read in the press. Certainly there must be many exceptions and smaller implementations that don’t make it to the international headlines.)
In France, a strongly-centralized government is adopting OpenOffice.org and other FOSS programs in its central government agencies (well over 300,000 systems have been migrated to OpenOffice already, for example).
On the other hand, a much more federalist country, Germany, is moving city-by-city and state-by-state. In this we have some news for today: Erwin Tenhumberg announces that Freiburg, Germany, will upgrade 2,000 municipal computers to OpenOffice.org, and save €500,000 over the next two years compared to what moving to MSO 2007 would cost. (He also provides a link to the original article in German.)
The USA is also moving in a federalist manner. Four states have so far made commitments or begun legal proceedings to migrate to ODF (though not explicitly to OpenOffice yet): Massachusetts, Minnesota, Texas, and California, in that chronological order.
Posted in ODF, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Freiburg, Germany, Adopts OpenOffice
February 28th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Computerworld writes California may join rush of states toward ODF.
“A California legislator last Friday introduced a bill that would mandate the use of open, XML-based document file formats by the state government starting next January. It is the third such state-level legislation to be introduced this month.”
This follows Massachusetts’ move to ODF (not by a state law, but by a decision of its IT agency), and bills introduced in Minnesota and Texas to adopt an open format for state agencies as well.
“Like the other two measures, the bill in the California Assembly doesn’t list any specific document formats that could be used. But as in Minnesota and Texas, the introduction of such a bill appears to be another potential win for backers of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) for Office Applications.”
If you put these four states on a map, you’ve got the compass points covered: Massachusetts in the East, Minnesota in the North, Texas in the South, and California in the West. We just need to fill the in-betweens!
Also, California is the most populous state (37 million people, more than 12% of the entire USA), and Texas is second (24 million people, about 8% of the US population), meaning that a large number of Americans will be affected by these bills.
Further, California, Massachusetts and Texas contain important high technology nodes; where they pioneer tech issues, other states are likely to follow along.
Any way you slice it, this is good news for open formats, ODF, and data liberation! It is bringing the entire country very close to the digital tipping point.
Also see a post on Andy Updegrove’s Standards Blog for more information and analysis:
“It was 18 months ago that Massachusetts began this trend, when its Information Technical Division revised the Enterprise Technical Resource Model (ETRM) upon which its IT procurement is based. That revision not only required open standards and welcomed open source in its procurement, but also blessed an open document format standard called OpenDocument Format, or ODF. Since then, government procurement based on open standards in general, and the role of ODF in particular, have been very much in the spotlight.”
Posted in Free Culture, ODF, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | 1 Comment »
February 28th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
AbiWord will be available on the OLPC platform, and it was just improved with support for ODF.
The linked article was just a quick note, so if you want to skip the link, here’s the full text:
“I’ve just added support for the OpenDocument file format to the “OLPC version” of AbiWord (it already supported .doc, .rtf, (x)html, .txt, and of course .abw). Given that AbiWord hacker and supreme bughunter sum1 just fixed an annoying OpenDocument RTL bug, OpenDocument import and export should be useful for our Bi-Directional-Multilanguage-ODT-loving friends as well :)”
Posted in ODF, OLPC, Open Source | Comments Off on OLPC to Support OpenDocument
February 27th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
An open document standard, though not explicitly ODF, will become mandatory in Denmark beginning January 1, 2008.
Sam Hiser says not to worry, as MSOOXML cannot stand up to ODF in a fair comparison:
“This gives me no anxiety whatsoever. MSOOXML has already been thoroughly de-bunked vis a vis its repudiation of other existing standards; it is in perhaps a perpetual deep-freeze at ISO (from which Microsoft will not seek or wish to remove it, since “ISO status pending” is all they need to sell it; the alternative is to re-wire their entire new catalog of software); under further use testing and scrutiny in Denmark, its repudiation of the basic intentions of XML will be highlighted; and under scrutiny in Denmark the thorough dependency of MSOOXML documents upon the Microsoft stack (Vista, Exchange, Sharepoint, Outlook, MS SQL Server, IE7, Office 2007, Groove, etc.) and their lack of interoperability & compatibility outside the new Microsoft stack will be underscored and well understood. The Danes will find that MSOOXML is no solution.”
Posted in Free Culture, ODF, Open Source | Comments Off on Denmark: Open Standards Mandatory
February 20th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Jonathan Schwartz, chief executive officer and president of Sun Microsystems, blogs about the importance of ODF:
“If you write a law or a medical history or a regulatory filing in a word processor that supports ODF today, and need to gain access to it at any point in the future, you’ll have the freedom to do so on your terms. Without being held up by an application provider. ODF is a true open standard (PDF link), adopted and implemented by a diversity of vendors (from IBM and Sun, to Google, Red Hat and now even Microsoft), and embraced by an amazing spectrum of the planet. And it’s royalty free.”
ODF has been a major project for Sun and many other contributors, but this is the first mention of it at such a high level from Sun (that I have seen).
Posted in ODF, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Jonathan Schwartz on ODF
February 13th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
The Standards Blog reports that Sun has released an MSO to ODF plugin, to save Microsoft Office-generated documents in the open standard ODF format.
Sun’s plugin page offers more info and a placeholder for the download, which will be available soon: “The converter is easy to setup and use, the conversion happens transparently and the additional memory footprint is minimal. Microsoft Office users now have seamless two-way conversion of Microsoft Office documents to ODF.”
This plugin is already being used by Massachusetts to meet its new ODF requirement, without migrating all of its existing legacy MS Office systems to OpenOffice.org or other ODF-compatible applications (yet).
Microsoft has also sponsored a plugin of its own; however, the Microsoft plugin only functions with MS Office 2007, which is not very useful! Sun’s plugin works with Office 2003 (and possibly earlier versions), which means there’s no need to buy new software licenses to use it. Obviously, that’s going to be the better choice for users.
Posted in ODF, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Sun Releases ODF Plugin