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ODF Offers MS Word Plugin to MA
Goalie_Ca writes "Groklaw just posted that the OpenDocument Foundation is offering Massachusetts a plugin that could 'allow Microsoft Office to easily open, render, and save to ODF files, and also allow translation of documents between Microsoft's binary (.doc, .xls, .ppt) or XML formats and ODF ... The testing has been extensive and thorough. As far as we can tell there isn't a problem, even with Accessibility add ons, which as you know is a major concern for Massachusetts.'"
Massachusetts never formulated this as an "either-or" issue
No, that's incorrect. The OOo advocates tried to hijack this thing as soon as it was clear that MS wasn't going to directly support ODF.
Microsoft cares deeply about what office format you use,
They are introducing an XML format themselves. While there's some legal quibbles, it basically eliminates the "lock-in" argument from the equasion. Of course, they would probably rather that you used their format over someone elses, but as long as you are buying MS Office, why would they complain?
Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
I believe that for ODF to take off, the source code to this plugin should never be released ... and that a plugin for the upcoming Office should never be released too.
Why? Because if people must use ODF, they cannot use Microsoft's "latest-and-greatest" version unless Microsoft themselves develops ODF compatibility. This would seriously impact them where it hurts - their revenue. People who must have ODF will not upgrade.
And to ensure this, the plugin must be closed source.
(Of course, they can have some kind of Shared-Source licensing in the same way that Microsoft promotes, and offer to open it to Microsoft on that basis... Make sure that the license includes some nice juicy NDA provisions and has a viral clause which taints all who walks within 100ft of the source...)
No sig. Move along - nothing to see here.