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Surprisingly the only company that does not make a plugin is MS itself.

I'll take the bait and post this despite my dislike for Microsoft.

link

In a big step forward for interoperability, Microsoft’s recently-released Service Pack 2 for Office 2007 includes built-in support for a range of additional file formats including the OpenDocument Format (ODF).

Also, their PR

When using SP2, customers will be able to open, edit and save documents using ODF and save documents into the XPS and PDF fixed formats from directly within the application without having to install any other code. It will also allow customers to set ODF as the default file format for Office 2007.

Hm. No plugin, because no plugin is necessary, I presume.

It's possible. In that case, by keeping the deals they make to different developers secret, they will have better negotiating power.

But this could also be more about Apple wanting control of what the media journalists, bloggers, and commenters on internet forums can say about Apple, their policies, and decisions. (E.g. the secrecy requirements may be "defensive" in nature, standard language they could use for all developer tools, possibly)

For example, if Google revealed certain information, it could result in the media publishing critical things about Apple.

Apple is very sensitive and aggressive in controlling their public image, and they are well known for their secrecy.

They are also well known for sending armies of lawyers at web sites or people revealing information they don't want puiblished, or that are excessively critical of them. Their tools include cease and decist letters, DMCA notices, threats to sue, and actual lawsuits....

Examples in recent years:

• Apple Computer ordered to pay more than $750k in attorney fees and court costs in a case that pitted the electronics giant against a group of online journalists who posted information about an unreleased Apple product on the Web.
• Apple Broke the law by lying about Steve Jobs' health
• Apple product failure results in gagging order
• Apple Lawyers set sights on new prey (after sending cease-and-decist letters to "Podcasting" websites over alleged dilution of the "iPod" mark)
• Apple Lawyers bully bloggers over iPhone skins
• Apple Lawyers Tried To Cover-Up Exploding iPod Stories,
• Microsoft Cows To Apple Lawyers, Changes 'Laptop Hunters' Ad
• Apple's lawyers shut down rumor site, 2 (Think Secret)
• Apple lawyers nix box pix
• Apple's lawyers attack everyone over iPhone icons - "Apple's lawyers also sent letters to journalists who simply reported on the fact that the skins were available."
• Apple's lawyers threaten fake Steve jobs (Parody site)
• Apple sued for threatening fan wiki - 2
• Apple sues Victoria School - over the use of a logo that is shaped like an Apple. [...] students are now afraid to give their teachers apples now because of the fruitâ(TM)s striking resemblance to the company logo.
• Apple Lawyers shutting down Iowa Bar's iPod Mondays
• Apple Cease-and-Decists Stupidity Leak
• A

You'll be waiting a while. Ubuntu won't have OO.o 3 until next April.

Long story short: upstream delays made it miss the Intrepid feature freeze.

Whatever you may think about software patents, the fact is that Canonical only has three choices here:

0) Not offer this software

1) Include the software for free, and break the law in some countries

2) Offer legal software, and pay the licensing fees in some countries

Emphasis mine. What about the rest of the world? In good fashion, I haven't RTFA, but do they offer an option like "I'm legally safe, install without paying"? They should.

Ubuntu is my favorite distribution, and I'm happy to see legal, supported DVD playback.

[troll]Have you considered emigration?[/troll]

Seriously, there isn't really a reason why Canonical shouldn't offer them for free as well. After all, in more than 50% of the world the codecs are unencumbered, including their own country.

"Despite having an open source strategy the South African government doesn't really understand how to benefit from OSS. This is according to Microsoft director of corporate standards, Jason Matusow." http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=2432

Here is an example on the other side of the Atlantic http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=2365

Ubuntu is, or was initially, an African distro. It is, AFAIK, the only distro with extensive African language translations. The South African government is committed to open source in all state departments including education and is actively migrating its proprietary software to open source http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?iSectionId=2888&iArticleId=3695987. It will only allow proprietary where there is no open source equivalent, which explains why MS is upset. South Africa may not be a large market by MS's standards, but the government's stance is already having a knock-on effect with some large industry players opting for open source as well. http://www.tectonic.co.za/wordpress/?p=1562&src=digg

More info at:
http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=2219

But, two thoughts come to my mind

1. Maybe De Icaza laments that ms is making Office Online not work for Linux users?
2. Maybe ms is intent on gaining ads revenue from companies looking for impressions upon ms Word users?

"Visiting the Microsoft Office Live Workspace promises to allow users to store as many a 1000 documents online and share them with colleagues. Sounds good. Unless you try and sign up for the free service and you're running Linux. If you are running Linux then you'll be greeted with a screen informing you that you'll need to be running a version of Windows or MacOSX and either Internet Explorer or Firefox (good to see Firefox in there)."

Dear fellow ./ers, lurkers, entrepreneurs, educators, students, etc., etc.:

As an educator and/or parent, etc., if you are looking for something for schools, at home use with children, etc., this has already been done:
http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=1548 [tectonic.co.za]

You can even download and install on your computer (both a lite version and a full version with images, etc.), already checked, etc.
Quite nice. I like it. Works for me. And I would imagine it would be updated (possibly yearly, since it is currently called '2007').(let's try to stay up-to-date on these kinds of things, ok? :-))

Forget the wikipedia-business-of-the-month club subscriptions. And of course, I'm sure there won't be any business/product/political bias in an for profit venture, eh? How will articles critical of Veropedia be handled, for example? Does he who pays/buys the most advertising get more space/priority, etc. over those who don't, etc.? What if there is a competing product/service between a paying customer and a similar product/service from a non-profit? Do they get equal treatment?

Dear fellow /.ers:

As an educator, if you are looking for something for schools, at home use with children, etc., this has already been done:
http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=1548 [tectonic.co.za]

You can even download and install on your computer (both a lite version and a full version with images, etc.), already checked, etc.
Quite nice. I like it. (let's try to stay up-to-date on these kinds of things, ok? :-))

Forget the wikipedia-business-of-the-month club subscriptions.

Dear fellow ./ers:

As an educator, if you are looking for something for schools, at home use with children, etc., this has already been done:
http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=1548

You can even download and install on your computer (both a lite version and a full version with images, etc.), already checked, etc.
Quite nice. I like it. (let's try to stay up-to-date on these kinds of things, ok? :-))

Forget the wikipedia-business-of-the-month club subscriptions.

I read it here almost a week ago. I suppose this is probably just the "official word."

like these...

http://www.tuxs.org/evolution.png
http://www.tectonic.co.za/graphics/evolution.png
rest...

Manzuik said Microsoft has been silently fixing bugs as far back as 2004. He referred to the company's MS04-007 bulletin as a classic example of Microsoft announcing a fix for a single vulnerability when in fact a total of seven flaws were quietly fixed.

"I don't buy the argument that they are aiding attackers. The attackers are already reverse-engineering the patches. They have the time and resources to find out where the flaw lies. The guy that feels the pain is the system administrator who is in the dark and who can't do his own reverse-engineering,"

You might want to look at this article about Espresso, the GUI installer that one runs from the Dapper Drake Ubuntu Live CD.

...folks to spend $1000 per device, I like this option. ;)

A good overview:
http://www.gnome.org/~davyd/gnome-2-14/

If you're running ubuntu dapper, it updated to 2.14 wednesday. It isn't really immediately distinguishable from the previous version but then, if you are also running xgl/compiz, who the hell cares?

http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=916

-rcmiv

HA! HA! I have the cube!

Separated at birth?

I just hope Shuttleworth won't crap in Ubuntu just because he bought Impi: http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=631

Pedal power, Linux gets Ugandans talking http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=489 Contrary to the views of some of the more ignorant posters on this site tech and opensource have a great role to play in development.

What this app also needs is a major interface redesign.

I had the joy of being able to use Pages from iWork all day yesterday. After using that app which has something like five toolbar buttons total, seeing this cluttered interface of tiny, tiny toolbar buttons all jammed into two rows with everything and the kitchen sink right there staring back at you makes my eyes hurt.

I mean, it looks almost exactly like Microsoft Office. Even a lot of the toolbar icons are incredibly similar and function the same way. This is just an Office clone, not a new, innovative OSS office suite. Businesses don't mind paying for Office and won't see a reason to switch if they can just get the real thing that runs faster, integrates better, and opens/reads their files.

Links to the readable versions of the articles that have them:
Rumors of Microsoft's Demise Are Premature...But Not Unthinkable
Linux to turn Windows into niche player

Articles I've read say that it will be released in November. But it does sound nice :) Here are some of the articles: vnunet tectonic linuxelectrons

...it is *necessary* in order for open-source projects to reach the mass-market (unless they sell themselves out) that any spokespeople which they have (and Linus is certainly this) pander to the needs and perceptions of the mass majority. And Linus, in this case, did *not* do this.

Why, you should email him and give him a piece of your mind then. For my part, I felt the article his responses were artfully crafted for exactly the target audience he wished to address, and just so you know, that is not the general public. It is people like you and me, technophiles who hang out out the net and help define the future directions of technology, and hence, society. To put it less delicately, he's aiming at people who have a clue.

If your wife needs someone to speak more directly to her level of knowledge, point her at Mad Dog Hall. Now there is a man who speaks beautifully to the masses and enjoys doing it.