Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Two Open Document Standards Better Than One?

Posted by Zonk on from the snarky-lil-megacorp-aren't-they? dept.

tsa writes "Microsoft says that the consumers should have the choice between multiple open standards for documents." From the article: "Microsoft's Yates said that OpenDocument and Open XML come from very different design points. 'In the future at some point there will be convergence,' he said. In the near term, the transition period from proprietary document formats to Open XML-based ones will be 'messy and complex,' he added. 'Competition between standards we believe is a very good thing.'"

4 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. MS craftier than you think by spycker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I got a new laptop and it had MS works installed. I used Word until the trial period expired then when I could no longer open documents I downloaded OpenOffice. Lo and behold when I try to open an MS document now it does open using Word except it does ask me to license the product.

    I get the impression that Word looks for OpenOffice and if it finds it decides to go ahead and open the document!!!!

    1. Re:MS craftier than you think by WindBourne · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Is anybody else seeing this? I wonder if that was due to OO being seen in the registry via MSOffice, or if it occured by information being sent to MS AND then back again?

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  2. Re:MS is competing... and winning... by VitaminB52 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    You're just upset because they're winning.

    Most MS critics are not upset because MS is winning, but because MS is using unfair and illegal means in order to win.

    People have chosen to use MS software and they have chosen to give MS a majority market share.

    You mean: PC manufacturers have chosen to bundle Windows and Office on every system they sell, not giving a rebate to consumers who want a new PC without Windows+Office. Having Windows+Office preinstalled on every new system gave MS a majority market share.
    Joe Average will reason that, having already paid for the pre-installed software, he is going to use that software instead of buying and installing alternative software - after all, the only software Joe Average installs on his PC is the software that get's automatically installed when you surf to the wrong websites with IE as your browser.

    Please stop parroting the MS marketing speak; MS Office isn't running on most PC's because the consumers chose to use it, but because the PC manufactures preinstalled it.

  3. Competition between standards: good?!? by egarland · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Take for example Betamax vs VHS. That was very good thing. Oh wait, no, the other thing. A major catastorphy. It caused consumers tons of pain, cost everyone tons of money and set the industry back years.

    Competition is good. Standards are good. Competition between standards: very bad.

    "And we go round and round and round in the circle game."

    --
    set softtabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 expandtab nocp worlddomination