Norway Moves Towards Mandatory Use of ODF and PDF

Andy Updegrove writes "Norway has become the latest European country to move closer to mandatory government use of ODF (and PDF). According to a press release provided in translation to me by an authoritative source, Norway now joins Belgium, Finland, and France (among other nations) in moving towards a final decision to require such use. The Norwegian recommendation was revealed by Minister of Renewal Heidi Grande Roys, on behalf of the Cabinet-appointed Norwegian Standards Council. If adopted, it would require all government agencies and services to use these two formats, and would permit other formats (such as OOXML) to be used only in a redundant capacity.Reflecting a pragmatic approach to the continuing consideration of OOXML by ISO/IEC JTC 1, the recommendation calls for Norway to 'promote the convergence of the ODF and OOXML, in order to avoid having two standards covering the same usage.' According to the press release, the recommendation will be the subject of open hearings, with opinions to be rendered to the Cabinet before August 20 this summer.The Cabinet would then make its own (and in this case binding) recommendation to the Norwegian government."

Comments

FPC

[node159]

First Post Club

Re:That is insane.

[Anonymous Coward]

"But it will have better staying power than just about anything else I've seen to this date."

Unlike that .doc file format which has been around and still works in all versions of Word and in all competing word processors for almost 20 years. Can you manipulate v1 Open Office file formats in 95% of the word processing market?

People like you just make me laugh. The honest people who admit this is really about promoting FOSS through legislation I applaud. If you won't admit it, then so be it. If you can't internalize it and at least accept it then you are a moron.

Re:I hate PDF

[DrSkwid]

System Tray, wtf is that ?

try a proper Operating System, not some bloated corpse.