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.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Free Culture, ODF. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.