ODF

Microsoft bowing to the inevitable, will offer ODF support with Office SP2

April 15, 2009

There are currently two international open document formats: Microsoft’s OOXML, and the truly open Open Document Format (ODF). Microsoft bought and paid for its ISO certification last year. (OOXML is not open; Microsoft merely promises not to sue anyone for using its format.) As an extra layer of protection, perhaps, Microsoft’s published OOXML specification is [...]

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Minnesota study supports open document formats

May 29, 2008

New York and Minnesota just completed studies into the merits of using open formats. In the Minnesota report, the Office of Enterprise Technology came out in favor of open document formats, but stated that the marketplace is in flux, and it may be too early to recommend one format over another. (In related news, Microsoft [...]

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Brits shying away from Microsoft Office

May 14, 2008

According to InformationWeek, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency is advocating for removing Microsoft Office from the classroom in favor of open-standards compliant office suites like OpenOffice.org. It is good to see this kind of pressure on Microsoft. If they would either open up their OOXML standard or else support the Open Document Format [...]

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Netherlands go open source!

December 31, 2007

Under a new Dutch law, the Dutch government must start using open source software by April 2008. In addition to the greater security and resistance obsolescence, open source software could save the Dutch government as much at $8.8 million per year on city housing registers alone. Meanwhile, Microsoft chimes in about its race “to achieve [...]

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Hardware -> software -> standards (platform irrelevance)

October 4, 2007

In the beginning, there was hardware. With early computers, operating systems were not really conceived separately from the hardware. Software was hard-coded into computing systems. Soon after, however, hardware became the means to run an operating system. All hardware was made to run with an operating system–usually Windows, after Microsoft became dominant. And the operating [...]

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Document longevity

July 6, 2007

Last week on the MSBA’s SoloSmall list serve, I asked for reasons why attorneys do not yet have a paperless law office. To me, one of the most interesting reasons was based on a fear of obsolescence. In other words, will we still be able to read the PDF and word processor documents we create [...]

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