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Microsoft will open its Office format tomorrow

settledown said:
This is from the Financial Times, so I dont have any idea of reliability.
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Probably extremely, MS has been trying to come up with a "document standard" for years -- but they kept forgetting that Office was already the standard anyways.

Opening up the documents to other companies should help keep Office the standard, and give MS control like they wanted.

Why create a entirely new rival to the .pdf file when the .doc is already around.

Edit: then there is the antitrust angle...
 
on the other hand...

I was thinking that apple could add this compatibility to pages and "cells" and keynote as MS releases the format.

Now there is no need for Office on the Mac
 
settledown said:
Now there is no need for Office on the Mac
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Whoa, slow down there. Even if this is true, I don't buy for a second that Microsoft is sincere about this. Sure they'll open the document standard....until they change their mind, or the format, or we'll find out that they didn't open all of the format but just part of it.

Besides, it's not enough to just open the format. Having a relatively neutral standards committee like OASIS makes a big difference. It helps to prevent a company (like, say, Microsoft) from forcing incompatibilities on everyone. Of course, anyone can stop supporting the standard, but then they would no longer be compliant.

Besides, as many have pointed out, Office is a pretty good product. It's far too overpriced for what it is, but that's true on WindowsXP as well. And even if Microsoft were merely acting in the interest of fair competition (they aren't), they will continue to have the best conforming implementation of the "standard" until other office suites catch up.

-kev
 
Correct. The article doesn't mention it, but this reeks of a rear-guard action against the adoption of OASIS standards, which the commonwealth of Massachusetts has already done, and other governments seem likely to follow. Never trust Microsoft -- their only motivation is the protection of their monopolies. If they really believed in open standards, they'd turn them over to a neutral standards body.
 
I wish i could belive there way no (evil)angle.

If this is true and there seems to be no angle well then OpenOffice/Ms Office on Mac just lost all meaning.:)
 
zap2 said:
I wish i could belive there way no (evil)angle.

If this is true and there seems to be no angle well then OpenOffice/Ms Office on Mac just lost all meaning.:)
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Over the next couple years it will cement Office as the actual document standard.

Not the current, sort of works with Office documents like we have today.

---

People try to get away from MS products, and MS makes their documents their documents the standard in one easy step.

What's evil about that?

attachment.php
 
The funny thing about Microsoft "standards" is their short duration. Try opening a "Microsoft Works" file in Word, or a Word 2000 file in Word 2004 if you want to know what I mean. At my office I have a PC with XP and Word 2002; my secretary has a newer PC with Office 2004 or something newer; the formatting is completely inconsistent and the documents generated on my box are all screwed up on hers. It is inconceivable to me that this is considered acceptable; that's the world of microsoft.Forced upgrades or jibberish. I refuse to ever put Microsoft Office on my mac at home.
 
rosalindavenue said:
The funny thing about Microsoft "standards" is their short duration. Try opening a "Microsoft Works" file in Word, or a Word 2000 file in Word 2004 if you want to know what I mean. At my office I have a PC with XP and Word 2002; my secretary has a newer PC with Office 2004 or something newer; the formatting is completely inconsistent and the documents generated on my box are all screwed up on hers. It is inconceivable to me that this is considered acceptable; that's the world of microsoft.Forced upgrades or jibberish. I refuse to ever put Microsoft Office on my mac at home.
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Yeah, their standards are kind of a joke. If you want to save something as a word file, there are about four different .doc file types you can choose from, for different years. And considering how well internet explorer interprets the web standards, I doubt Microsoft will continue to even support their own standards.
 
Prom1 said:
I wonder if this has anything to do with their dot Net strategy of no longer putting costs/expenses of CD's and instead offer download or LEase on net only.
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It had more to do with the state of Mass. rejecting office because its file formats were not open... I'm more interested if they are just opening the XML format "completely" or giving up the binary format, that one is more valuable IMO.
 
SummerBreeze said:
Yeah, their standards are kind of a joke. If you want to save something as a word file, there are about four different .doc file types you can choose from, for different years.
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Don't make the mistake of believing that this is purely a Microsoft problem.

Butter-wouldn't-melt-in-their-mouth Adobe do it all the time as well — try opening an Illustrator CS1 EPS in Illustrator 8. EPS is EPS, right?

It's just a way of pushing people towards upgrading their apps.

What? You're still using Office 2000 and it looks crap now? Tough luck... buy this and all be will be rosy again.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Correct. The article doesn't mention it, but this reeks of a rear-guard action against the adoption of OASIS standards, which the commonwealth of Massachusetts has already done, and other governments seem likely to follow. Never trust Microsoft -- their only motivation is the protection of their monopolies. If they really believed in open standards, they'd turn them over to a neutral standards body.
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Bingo! Increasingly government agencies are looking for so-called open standards for everything. Microsoft fears revolt.

This really doesn't have anything to do with Metro. Or does it?
 
decksnap said:
Bingo! Increasingly government agencies are looking for so-called open standards for everything. Microsoft fears revolt.

This really doesn't have anything to do with Metro. Or does it?
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OASIS is a real open standards project. Anyone can use them, free of charge. Microsoft is resisting this idea, for obvious reasons.
 
story getting legs? after being covered in the Financial Times, one of the most respected newspapers in the worldwide business community... :rolleyes:
 
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