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Microsoft Reaches Out To Blender
dmbasso writes "Continuing its strategy to support FOSS application on the Windows platform, Microsoft mailed the Blender developers asking how they could help improve the experience of Blender users on Windows. Groklaw puts it in perspective using Steve Ballmer's own words."
FTFA:
"Specifically, Microsoft is slowly shifting toward a more open standards based approach to its file formats. The ISO standard Office Open XML is an example of the direction we are moving towards."
I mean when they say that, does the person at the other end of the phone put the line on mute and roll over laughing for a few minutes? Or when they're composing the email, does the writer actually believe what he (or she) is saying? How does the person who wrote this actually sleep at night?
Help a man when he is in trouble and he will remember you when he is in trouble again.
"Please also include in that list any Microsoft files that you might have trouble with."
3-word answer: "All of them."
OOPS!! My bias is showing!!!
Investigate OOXML's openness for yourself, instead of automatically and unquestioningly believing what you read on Groklaw or from IBM bloggers, and you will be in for a surprise.
There are commercial interests who had a big stake in OOXML not being approved, and they were not above FUD. Groklaw picked up a lot of that FUD and republished it. A good 80-90% of the claims I read on Groklaw about OOXML that could definitely be checked (such as claims about the terms of the license, or claims about the content of the specification) turned out to be false when I actually went to the license or the spec and read for myself.
"If you can't figure out what stuff does without a video tutorial, then it is *by definition* not intuitive."
And another misologist fires off his piehole. Designing 3D graphics is professional work, for trained people. The same as any other 3D application at all at all. There are no intuitive interfaces anywhere.
claims about the content of the specification
Oh god yes. Mod parent up, he's spot-on. The Open XML specification is arguably more implementable than the ODF spec; there are numerous cases in ODF where fairly vital information (cryptography comes to mind) is left up to the implementor, and incompatible versions exist.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
And sometimes they post here.
I rest my case.
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
Yeah, PJ on groklaw is an anonymous blogger alright
I have the utmost respect for PJ's writings through the SCO case. That said, since then she's gone completely off the rails. She's not worth listening to, it seems, unless it has to do with SCO. When on any other subject, she's a slavering, drooling GNUtard. (And yes, despite developing open-source software myself, I will use the appellation "GNUtard" for anyone like her.)
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
Don't let them get involved, it will only serve to spell the eventual death sentence for one of OSS's star children.
Microsoft ( understandably ) can only have nefarious intent here.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
The goal is to waste developer time on Windows and create debate and animosity about it. This is well documented behavior. They won't provide real help.
Dear MS,
With regards to helping improve Blender experience on Windows.
Publishing a SP that doesn't crash the users computers, would be a good start.
He who said 1,000,000 monkeys on 1,000,000 typewriters would eventually type the great novel, never saw an AOL chat room