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IBM Beats Microsoft Over the Head With Their Own Code
bednarz writes "IBM has added a twist to its new commitment to help OpenOffice.org battle Microsoft Office by donating code that was originally derived in part from a Microsoft-developed technology. IBM's iAccessible2, code-named Project Missouri, is a specification for technology used to help the visually impaired interact with Open Document Format (ODF)-compliant applications and was developed in part using Microsoft Active Accessibility (MAA). 'When the specification was donated to the Linux Foundation, Oracle, Sun, and SAP committed to help with future development. Mozilla is committed to incorporating it into its Firefox browser, and vendors GW Micro and Freedom Scientific will also use it in their own screen reader products. In addition, Project Missouri has won accolades from the American Association of People with Disabilities, the American Foundation for the Blind, and the National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science.'"
I don't know where "beats Microsoft over the head" comes in. IBM is donating Microsoft-developed code that empowers the blind to use software better.
Gee, I'm sure MS doesn't want that kind of bad PR...
Next up: Bill Gates donates large sums to the UN to help with immunizations! Oh, MS! BURRRNN!
These sensational headlines are kinda getting boring.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
Microsoft has made no commitment to follow any standard. Including the standards that they developed and supported only in their products. Despite all the effort it put into OOXML ratification, it really made no commitment to implement it fully or support it in the next version. They own 90% of the market and not allowing anyone else to interoperate with them is the clear unambiguous goal for them. So what if IBM posts some accessibility code and donates it? In the next version the accessibility API & GUI will completely change in Windows and so all this code and the effort by others to follow the standards will be thwarted. Sorry to be a cynic, but as long as customers confuse interoperability with Microsoft compatibility there is no way others can win. Customers flock to Microsoft. May be blindly. May be short-sightedly. May be against their own interest. But as long as they do, all we can do is to wring our hands in despair.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
All the improvements are very welcomed especially when you take into account the price of Open Office. How will Microsoft, at some point (or even now), justify the huge price tag of MS Office?
I hope IBM they made VERY sure that Microsoft can't come after them for using MS technology, otherwise it could be giving MS what they want in that it geves them an excuse to attack and try to close down OpenOffice.
Well, MS Office supports ODF.
Actually, they actually helped create it, if my memory serves me right.
So what's the problem, then? MS Office sucking compared to the competition? ;)
Ignore this signature. By order.
Well, IBM has surely been seriously harmed by the SCO incident. As you can see, IBM has become a penny stock company, they are ridiculed across Slashdot... they're finished.
The kind of lawyers IBM has, I'd be amazed to watch MS try and take them on. I'd even make popcorn. (Especially since I'm quite certain that, having the kind of lawyers they have, they'd made pretty sure they were in the clear beforehand.)
Ignore this signature. By order.
Shouldn't respond to trolls, bit someone might actually believe you.
>> Office is WIDELY used, and it *is* the standard.
That's a funny definition of "standard". I guess I get it. Kinda like AOL is "the standard", this WWW thing is just a fad.
>> but in ANY financial institution, Excel is a
>> *requirement*
Can I see your sources? Or is that proprietary info.? Do I need to sign an NDA first?
>> without having to 'convert' thousands of
>> spreadsheets they have worked so tirelessly on.
Gosh, I can see why open formats are so bad now, and why they limit your choice of applications.
And why would anyone ever want to 'convert'? Isn't that what those open source heathens are always trying to get everyone to do? Only people who are wrong in the first place need to convert. Good folk like you and me are 100% right all the time, so we never need to convert to ANYTHING.
By the way, what format did those financial institutions use before Excel? It was a painless transition, no? I mean, any application they used back then could easily export 100%-compatible Excel documents, because "Excel" IS a standard. They wouldn't have switched to it in the first place if it wasn't standard, obviously. You know, being important financial institutions, they NEVER screw up.
Good thing those spreadsheets they enter aren't anything important, like financial data. Good thing we can count on the fact that we can read them 20 years from now. I mean, what if someday we actually DID start entering something important, like...I don't know...financial data, maybe? I can see why using the STANDARD is so important.
>> Maybe next format war, they can win... this one
>> they won't.
Good thing we aren't using open standards, because then there'd be no wars. Everyone loves wars!
Sorry about that first remark, I didn't think you were serious. You have won me over. I would love to have your children. Of course, we'll need an NDA first.